Aaron Judge's Postseason Availability Suddenly In Doubt
A Setback Just Days After His Return
The Yankees placed Judge on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain, a move made official Saturday but backdated to Thursday.
It comes just 11 days after he returned from a stress fracture in his right rib that had sidelined him for roughly three months. Judge was activated on September 8 and played seven games before the new injury surfaced, going just 4-for-23 with one home run, a .174 average that reflected how far his timing still was from where it needed to be.
He was pulled for a pinch hitter during the sixth inning of Wednesday's game against the Twins after feeling discomfort, initially calling it precautionary, but an MRI in Phoenix on Thursday confirmed an actual strain.
The Yankees have already clinched a playoff spot, which is the only reason this injury isn't a season-altering crisis. But it's still a brutal break for a team that just got its best player back and immediately lost him again.
No Grade, No Timeline, No Guarantees
Manager Aaron Boone would not disclose the severity of the strain, and when asked whether Judge would be back for the postseason, his answer offered nothing to hold onto.
"I don't know," Boone said. "I don't have a timeline on him. He's on the IL now. I'm not going to predict anything. We'll just obviously treat it and see what transpires."
Judge echoed that uncertainty himself, though he made clear where his hope lies. "I'd like to be back by the postseason," he said. "That's definitely the plan. I got really no answers for you on any timeline or anything like that."
He did reveal one new detail: the strain is located in his soleus muscle, which he described as more directly involved in running and hitting than other parts of the calf, making it a tougher injury to simply play through. Because it's a 10-day IL stint, the earliest Judge can be activated is New York's regular-season finale on September 27, just two days before the AL Wild Card Series is set to begin on September 29.
That leaves almost no margin for error. For context, Judge dealt with a calf strain back in 2020 that cost him roughly three weeks, a timeline that, if repeated here, would push his return into the middle of an AL Division Series rather than the Wild Card round.
Grade 1 calf strains typically require one to three weeks of recovery, while Grade 2 strains can run four to eight weeks, and without the Yankees disclosing which grade Judge is dealing with, there's no way to know which end of that range applies.
New York has proven this season it can win games without Judge in the lineup. Whether they can make a deep October run without their captain, or with a compromised version of him, is now a very big question the Yankees may not have an answer to until games actually start counting again.
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