When New York Yankees outfielder Aaron judge sprawled out for a diving catch last September, he immediately began to feel pain in his right side. Fast forward five months, and the Yankees were still unable to identify the issue that inevitably was a fractured rib.
“Tests were run,’’ a dejected Judge said. “Most of the pain and problem was coming from the shoulder and neck and surrounding areas. The pain was radiating to other places. You give ’em the symptoms and you tell them what’s wrong and they work off of what you say.’’
Judge stated that he had been feeling discomfort in the area for a while now, and the Yankees ran a bevy of state tests to diagnose the injury. At first, they believed it was a sore and cranky shoulder, according to manager Aaron Boone. Then, his pectoral muscle was the culprit, just to find out that he had a fractured rib the entire time. This is concerning, given the fact that they recently hired a new strength and conditioning staff.
The Yankees desperately need to avoid further injuries, as Judge will miss at least two weeks and opening day on March 26, Giancarlo Stanton is also in question to play against the Baltimore orioles in three weeks. Starting pitcher Luis Severino will miss the entire 2020 campaign after succumbing to Tommy John surgery, and James Paxton will miss several months after having a cyst removed from his lower back.
The Yankees starting outfield will consist of Brett Gardner, Clint Frazier, and Mike Tauchman after their entire starting unit has gone down with personal injuries.
Just two months ago, the Yankees fired former strength and conditioning coach Matt Kraus in favor of Eric Cressey, who is known for his ability to rehabilitate and train professional athletes. So far, the Yankees have continued to fall down a black hole of injury and concern. They must solve this lingering problem before the beginning of the regular season.
The NY Post spoke to Dr. Ryan Dowling, a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon with the North Jersey Orthopaedic Group.
“Treatment is almost always conservative: rest, four to six weeks, give it time to heal,†he told The Post. “There is a small subset that does not heal, and I know they talked about surgery, but I believe that would be extremely unlikely. Most likely it will just be rest and he should be OK.’’
Given Judge is able to avoid surgery and proceed with a healing regimen, he will likely be out for the first few weeks of the regular season, meaning Frazier and Tauchman will get additional work. Luckily, the Yankees have capable reserve options to supplement the loss of starters, but they must be careful in the rehabilitation of their top players.
How did the Yankees miss the rib fracture?
“MRIs don’t show it, that’s why it’s been missed for so long,†he said. “But going into the postseason I didn’t want to miss that. So get a shot and let’s get rolling, basically.
“This happened in September. We got October, November, December, January, February. I think we are kind of in the right ballpark. Once we got the pictures and saw the fracture I said, ‘How far along is this?’ and they said, ‘Oh, we are kind of in the middle ground. It’s healing up.’ I said, ‘Perfect.’ I guess we are on the right route and do what we need to do for a fracture and see if it continues to heal. That’s why we want to take another picture in two weeks.
“The CT scan was the biggest thing that really figured it out because we did MRIs on every single part of my body and everything came back clean, so it was pretty frustrating.â€
Moving forward, the Yankees must take more precautions with players feeling discomfort, as situations similar to Judge’s are entirely unacceptable.