New York Yankees fans got horrible news this morning, Aaron Judge is back on the 10 IL. Judge originally suffered a right calf injury during the first Tampa Bay Rays series at Tropicana Field. The injury according to Judge was minor, but Yankee manager Aaron Boone and trainers put Judge on the IL even with this protest. The move was out of the abundance of caution to protect their star player.
He was finally reactivated for the second game of a doubleheader on Wednesday and the very first time he ran the bases he reinjured the calf. Back in New York Judge underwent an MRI, showing the injury to the exact same calf. The result is that he is back on the IL, and will most likely be away from the playing field for more than two weeks this time.
For the New York Yankees, this devastating news couldn’t have come at a worse time, as they try to recover from five straight losses. The face the New York Mets this weekend for 5 games in 3 days. The doubleheader today will be played without Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, DJ. LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres.
The bad news just keeps coming for the Yankees. On a Zoom call yesterday, manager Aaron Boone released more bad news for the team. Shortstop Gleyber Torres who injured a calf and hamstring and is on the IL is now expected not to return for at least three weeks. Potentially he could miss the entire rest of the regular season.
The only good news for the New York Yankees is that their second base hitting machine, DJ LeMahieu is expected to be back in the lineup sometime this weekend. LeMahieu is a hugely important addition to the lineup with his .411 batting average and ability to get on base.
Last year the Yankees had an unprecedented number of injuries. 30 players were injured and did 39 stints on the IL. The Yankees after overhauling their health and training staff during the offseason were hoping to avoid last year’s debacle. Instead, this year is almost as bad, in a short season that makes time off the field even worse.