The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Yankees still don’t have answers on whether Judge’s injured rib has healed
TAMPA, Fla. — The more the Yankees talk about Aaron Judge’s rib/ shoulder injury, the murkier the situation seems to get. Tuesday on MLB Network radio, Aaron Boone gave a vague update on the slugger’s fractured right rib. The Yankees manager said that it was healing and Judge would have another CT scan “in a couple of more weeks.”
“So this time down has allowed that rib, that bone to continue to heal and all signs are encouraging there,” Boone said.
In March, when the Yankees seemingly had an answer for why their star slugger was hurting and missing spring training, the doctors had told Judge to rest and in two weeks check to see if the bone was healing.
If not, Judge was likely facing surgery.
To recap, this is the fractured first right rib that Judge hurt Sept. 18 while making a diving attempt to catch a fly ball. He played through the rest of the season with the help of painkillers. Judge said he pushed extra hard this winter, fueled by the disappointment of losing in the American League Championship Series for the second time in three years to the Astros.
Judge was originally shut down in early February with what the Yankees said was a shoulder injury.
He was finally diagnosed in the first week of March with the stress fracture in the rib after weeks of doctors exams and over a dozen tests. At that point, he was told to give it two weeks.
With baseball shut down on March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic, Judge has had extra time to let the bone heal. For two months, the Yankees’ updates on his injury have been vague, but indicating that the bone was still healing.
The Yankees have consistently said that this is encouraging, but almost three
months from when they first shut Judge down, there is still no word on Judge having made a full recovery.
The 28-year-old had not taken live batting practice since he was shut down in early February, and had only done minimal throwing and drills to rest the area as the Yankees ramped up spring training. What may have been complicating Judge’s recovery was that he had also had a partially collapsed lung — which had completely healed by the
time it was revealed in late March.
While there is no potential opening day date, MLB is working with its partners and public health officials to try and get some semblance of a 2020 season up and running.
Judge needs to have a good and healthy — if shortened by the global crisis — season in 2020 to prove he can stay on the field.
In his three previous big league seasons, he has never had two healthy or strong halves in one year.
He ended his 2016 season in mid-September, because
of a right oblique strain, which maintained his rookie status for ‘17. He set expectations high in his “rookie” season, hitting .329 with 30 homers in 84 games in the first half of 2017.
Then Judge went to the All-Star Game and won the Home Run Derby, then immediately began to struggle. He was 1 for 21 in his first five games following the All-Star break and in his first 55 hit .185 with 11 homers and 84 strikeouts over 189 at-bats from July 14 to Sept. 12.
It was not until the next spring he admitted a shoulder injury that required
offseason surgery had affected him.
Of course in 2018, Judge lost most of the second half of the season to a fractured wrist. After hitting 25 homers and driving in 60 runs in the first 93 games of the season, he only played in 19 in the second half. He hit 2 homers and drove in seven runs.
In 2019, Judge missed 54 games after straining his oblique in April.
He hit .264 (9 for 34) in the playoffs with one home run as the Yankees lost to the Astros in the sixth game of the American League Championship Series.