Aaron Boone shared a little bit of positive information about injured New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge on Monday.
With Aaron Judge in the lineup this year, the New York Yankees are 11-7. Without him, they’re 10-13, and they’ve fallen all the way to third place in the AL East.
If the Bombers are going to make any kind of run at championship No. 28, it’s hard to imagine them doing it without Judge on the field. But hope may be brewing.
According to Newsday’s Erik Boland, Yankees manager Aaron Boone hinted that The Judge may be ready to go soon.
“…I know he ran outside to start his ramp-up,” Boone told Boland on Monday. “I know he’s feeling [good] and everything went well in his first kind of running [more intensely] on the field. So that was good news.”
Judge, who missed 60 games in 2019, is already on his second Injured List stint in this COVID-19 shortened 2020 season.
He hit the IL on Aug. 14 with a right calf strain. During his first game back on Aug. 26, he immediately re-strained his calf and returned to the IL.
Before the injury bug bit him, Judge looked like the early favorite to win the AL MVP Award.
In 18 games this season, the 28-year-old slugger has nine home runs and 20 RBIs. He’s hitting .292 with a 1.081 OPS.
FIVE straight games with a homer.
Aaron Judge is on FIRE. pic.twitter.com/le8JhFl0Ox
— MLB (@MLB) August 3, 2020
The Yankees, losers in their past four contests, desperately need Judge’s powerful bat back in the lineup. New York is hitting .237 as a team and features four major contributors hitting well below .200—namely, Brett Gardner (.170), Tyler Wade (.158), Mike Ford (.141), and Gary Sanchez (.130).
Judge’s fellow Bronx Bomber Giancarlo Stanton is also currently engaged in his annual trip to the IL. Stanton has only appeared in 14 games this year, after missing 144 in 2019.
Per Boland, the team has no return date set for either of the sluggers.
