Alexander Wilson
Buster Olney did not dress it up on the Just Baseball Show. His read on Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton sounded like the version the Yankees really did not need while their offense is already stuck in the mud.
Olney said Aaron Judge is “not close to getting back” and floated mid-August or early September as a possible next-game window. He also said Giancarlo Stanton is “at least six weeks out.”
The Yankees have not announced a new medical timetable. This is Olney’s read on where things stand, but it lands hard because the club’s own updates have not sounded close either. Judge has been moving slowly, Stanton’s running progression has been unclear, and the lineup has already looked thin enough without having to stare at August.
Yankees are missing more than two names
Judge had carried a .248/.375/.533 line with 17 homers and a .908 OPS across 59 games before the injury. Even in a season where his average was down by his standards, the power and patience were still there. Pitchers still had to build plans around him.
Stanton’s year has been much smaller, only 24 games with a .256/.302/.422 line, three homers, and a .724 OPS. The numbers are not monster stuff, but the Yankees badly miss the threat. When the bottom half of the order gets soft, one right-handed mistake-crusher changes the feel of a game fast.
This is where the skid gets nastier. A bad offensive week is one thing. A bad offensive week with Judge possibly pushed toward late summer and Stanton staring at a long wait is a different kind of problem. The Yankees can patch the lineup with Trent Grisham, Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, Jasson Dominguez, and whoever else is hot for three nights, but nobody on that list scares pitchers the way Judge does.
Yankees cannot treat the deadline like normal
If Olney’s read is close, the trade deadline gets uncomfortable in a hurry. The Yankees have to decide whether they are buying a short-term bat to survive the next month, betting on internal answers, or waiting for health that might arrive too late to stop the slide.
There is also a patience trap here. The Yankees should not rush Judge back for July box scores, and Stanton’s body usually dictates its own pace no matter how badly the lineup needs him. Still, pretending this is a normal injury stretch would be hard to sell if both timelines really are this far away.
The Yankees do not need to panic off one podcast answer. They do need to be honest about what their lineup looks like without its two biggest power bats. If Judge is not back until mid-August or later and Stanton is six weeks away, the front office has a problem it cannot smooth over with a bench shuffle.
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