While the MLB and PA continue their negotiations on the financials of a shortened 2020 regular season, fans are beginning to feel restless, and the anticipation of baseball returning is dwindling. With coronavirus striking the Florida region once again, the New York Yankees and other major league clubs will likely have to move to a different location to begin practicing. Players continue to face the dangers of the virus, and some have contracted it over the past few days.
The virus certainly poses a threat, and the Yankees are still dealing with multiple injuries that will significantly impact their success in a hopeful regular-season debut in July. Aaron Judge remains one of the oft-injured players that can’t seem to remain healthy and available.
â€The best ability is availability,“ an often-used quote that describes how important health is in professional sports. Judge has struggled to uphold that goal, playing in just 102 games last year. His past two seasons have been cut significantly short, hitting no more than 27 home runs since 2017 when he posted 52, a career-high that landed him second place in MVP voting.
The New York Yankees need their new conditioning regimen to get Judge out of this injury funk
Judge has the ability to be one of the best players in baseball, but health issues continue to derail him and force him into more rehabilitation. If the season would have gone on normally, Judge would likely have missed more than half a year.
Even so, he could still miss the entire 2020 campaign as he battles a stress fracture in a rib that hasn’t fully recovered. He proceeded to work out and hit on the injury despite feeling discomfort earlier this year. X-rays showed that he actually punctured a lung, which has healed successfully despite not having undergone a recovery program.
The last time we heard about Judge’s situation was on May 22, when hitting coach Marcus Thames said:
“It’s been tough,’’ Thames said of Judge not being able to swing as he recovers from the fractured rib that sidelined him this spring and likely happened last September diving for a ball. “He really wants to get going. [We’re] just trying to stay safe. When the doctors let him, [we’ll] turn him loose. He’ll be ready. He’s chomping at the bit to get out there and start working hard on his swing.â€
It is possible that Judge goes under the knife to correct the rib that is taking exponentially long to heal. The New York Yankees believed that June or July was a more realistic timetable for return, and while nothing has been shared recently, the last information received a few weeks ago was negative. Hopefully, he is ready to go, and we can guarantee his eagerness to start the season on a positive note.