While the bad news regarding the suspension of baseball operations took hold of Thursday’s headlines, there’s one positive to extract from the Corona Virus — the New York Yankees will have more time to heal and get back into baseball shape!
Aaron Judge, who had been diagnosed with a stress fracture in a rib after months of discomfort in his shoulder area, is finally recovering. The doctors evaluating Judge took far too long to diagnose his condition, which has set him back significantly from joining the team for what was supposed to be a March 26 Opening Day.
How is New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge healing?
Judge, though, is making significant progress in his recovery, stating:
“I’m feeling great,” Judge said. “We’re progressing really well. I feel like I might be ahead of schedule. I don’t know what the schedule is, but I’m kind of pushing there — the timeline — as much as I can.”
The timeline for Judge’s recovery was about three weeks, given the stage of his stress fracture that occurred last September on an attempted diving catch in the outfield. If the Bombers can gain back arguably their best hitter and outfielder, it would fuel a resurgence in health.
It’s still possible that the Yankees elect to have the rib removed, but as of now, it’s seeming unlikely he will need any surgery:
“You could do surgery at some point to remove the rib,” Boone said. “So I wouldn’t say that’s off the table, but that’s not — you wouldn’t want to go do that right now, especially if the bone is healing.”
The Yankees are still projected to start the regular season with their entire outfield supplemented with reserve options. Clint Frazier, Mike Tauchman, and Brett Gardner are the slotted in as the starters while Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks recover from their individual ailments.