The New York Yankees have begun Spring Training games and players have been worked into the games to get their at-bats in to get ready for the season. DJ LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres, Luke Voit, Gio Urshela, and other familiar names that we’ll see during the regular season have played so far.
One of the biggest names that we haven’t seen step in the box yet is Aaron Judge. He’s been day-to-day with shoulder soreness that came from hitting and swinging. Even though this has created concern among Yankee fans, Judge and Aaron Boone have said that they aren’t worried about the soreness and believe it won’t hinder Judge’s regular-season play.
“Judge hit again [Saturday] and threw out to 90 feet,” Boone said this past weekend. “He is good, he is fine. We will be conservative with how we build him up hitting because I think he was 40 or 50 swings off a tee. He will graduate to soft toss. We won’t rush anything but he is fine.”
Boone is just being extra conservative with Judge because they don’t want a repeat of last season. He believes the soreness is just normal baseball soreness that comes with regular throwing and swinging. Even though Boone has said he isn’t concerned, he doesn’t know when Judge will play his first Spring Training game.
“I haven’t seen the progression we have for him. I am sure we will take it conservatively as far as getting him outside hitting and getting real at-bats,” Boone said. “He is fine and even when we shut him down from hitting he has been doing his defensive work and running, but I am not exactly sure when he will debut yet.”