This is not the season Aaron Judge envisioned.
The three-time American League MVP is on the injured list with a calf strain, and the Yankees got a deflating update Tuesday. Judge is dealing with a “moderate” strain and has received a PPP injection to help speed healing. Manager Aaron Boone says the team is expecting him to miss the wild-card round of the playoffs.
That’s a massive blow for a team that has stumbled down the stretch a bit.
Judge missed 86 games earlier this season due to a rib injury. He finally returned to the lineup on Sept. 8 and, eight days later, left a game against the Twins after tweaking his calf during a swing. He went back on the IL on Sept. 18 and was eligible to come off as soon as Sunday. That is now unlikely, to say the least.
The 34-year-old has played in a full-season career-low 66 games this season and while pushing through the worst campaign of his career. Judge will end the regular season slashing .241/.360/.511, and his .871 OPS is the lowest he’s posted since a 27-game audition as a rookie in 2016. His wRC+ of 141 is his lowest since the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.
He looked rusty when he came off the IL, and limped to a .513 OPS and a single home run in seven games.
It's been a lost season, but the Yankees have stayed afloat without him and entered Tuesday’s doubleheader with the Rays 89–66, with the top wild-card spot all but wrapped up. The team ranks 10th in runs scored and has leaned heavily on a pitching staff that boasts the best ERA in baseball at 3.22.
The Yankees are all but guaranteed to face the Red Sox in the opening round of the playoffs. Boston’s pitching staff ranks third in baseball with a 3.59 ERA, so runs figure to be at a premium in the series. The Red Sox won the season series, 7–6.
The list of Judge’s potential replacements in the lineup starts with Heliot Ramos, who has been manning right field, with Spencer Jones in center and Cody Bellinger in left. Ramos was added at the trade deadline and has struggled mightily to rack up hits in the Bronx. In 32 games with the team, he is slashing .172/.306/.366 with four home runs, 10 RBIs, 16 hits and a wRC+ of 91. He’s been bad, and he looks like the only option, as Trent Grisham appears far from returning. However, he has hit a home run in each of his last two games and is slashing .241/.305/.409 in September. That’s far from Judgian, but it’s at least some signs of life.
New York has gotten used to being without one of the best players on the planet for most of the season. The team deserves a lot of credit for getting this far, and can look to the 2021 Braves as inspiration in October—that Atlanta team lost Ronald Acuña Jr. for the season during the summer, entered the playoffs with just 88 wins and never faced elimination en route to a World Series title. And that Braves team didn’t have as talented of a pitching staff as these Yankees, who will also be granted a soft ALCS opponent with a worse record than them if they can advance that far.
With Judge down for the wild-card series, the Yankees will enter the playoffs on a down note no matter what happens over the season’s final week. But their biggest rival will still have to take down a plenty talented team in the hostile confines of Yankee Stadium—perhaps right after completing its season a day earlier. The injury gods may not be on the Yankees’ side right now, but if there’s one team the baseball gods have smiled upon throughout the sport’s existence, it’s them. Don’t count New York out yet.
