Happy weekend! Aaron Judge is hurt. Weekend fun times are over!!!

There’s probably a more professional way to begin this article but the 2025 Yankees have been twisting the knife into fans over the past month and change with terrible fundamentals, awful defense, abominable pitching, and disastrous relief. Since sweeping the Royals in early June, the Yanks are an American League-worst 14-22, sapping away their AL East lead (Toronto now sits 5.5 games ahead).

Led by Judge and a red-hot Cody Bellinger, the offense has generally kept them in games, even if glaring holes also existed at multiple positions in the lineup. Having just traded for Ryan McMahon to cover the hot corner more capably than the punchless combination of Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas, there was at least some optimism in parts of the fanbase entering Saturday, ahead of McMahon’s debut with the team at Yankee Stadium against the Phillies.

The starting lineup had McMahon in it, but Judge was nowhere to be found. Soon, manager Aaron Boone revealed what was going on: an elbow injury.

Judge is dealing with an elbow issue and had trouble throwing the ball from the outfield last night, Boone said. He’s not in the starting lineup. Yankees awaiting imaging results.

— JackCurryYES (@JackCurryYES) July 26, 2025

Everyone together now!

Yankees social media is already all over this, but now is the time when we remind you that on Tuesday, Judge was visibly grimacing after a play in the outfield in Toronto.

Judge and Boone downplayed it in the postgame and the day after, even with Judge DHing rather than manning right.

When I asked Aaron Judge about his wince in Toronto the other day, he replied, “I make facial expressions all the time.”

He noted he didn’t come out of the game and that he’s DH’d plenty in Toronto before.

Now Aaron Boone says Judge has an elbow issue. #Yankees https://t.co/0Mb08O33Hb

— Gary Phillips (@GaryHPhillips) July 26, 2025

This was a planned DH day for Aaron Judge, not because of the wincing cameras caught him doing after a throw last night.

“Just probably a throw that didn’t feel great,” Boone said, describing it as a one-off and not something more.

— Greg Joyce (@GJoyce9) July 23, 2025

Following the Thursday offday, Judge was back in the outfield for last night’s game against the Phillies. But something was clearly off, as Curry was not the only Yankees reporter to notice that Judge’s throws in from right were uncharacteristically weak.

It was noticeable that Judge was soft tossing balls back to the infield last night. Could be something to monitor. https://t.co/UY1cetqC3h

— Chris Kirschner (@ChrisKirschner) July 26, 2025

Now here we are on Saturday and Judge is undergoing testing on that elbow. He has an appointment with team physician Christopher Ahmad to discuss the results when they are in.

Apparently, Judge felt OK after the offday but it was indeed really bugging him on Friday, at least in the field. (As The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty noted, he did homer Wednesday.)

Aaron Boone, who had Aaron Judge DH on Wednesday, said Judge felt fine on the off day but was “really dealing with it” last night while throwing. The elbow seems to be less of an issue swinging. #Yankees https://t.co/HJA3RfPBvG

— Gary Phillips (@GaryHPhillips) July 26, 2025

We don’t need to look far into the past for evidence of a serious Judge injury being catastrophic to any Yankees championship hopes. When Judge missed two months in 2023 after getting hurt against the Dodger Stadium fence, it tanked the season. It would be hard for any team to shake off their superstar getting hurt (albeit not impossible, as indicated by the 2021 Braves and Ronald Acuña Jr.), but the Yankees proved to have a woefully lacking roster around Judge.

The cast of characters is different two years later, but it’s completely fair to be alarmed about the possibility of a return to what happened then. Despite a superior offense to ‘23, this is not the most well-constructed 26-man group either, and even with Judge putting up MVP numbers, they’re still just a couple games up in the Wild Card race. If the current slump that they’re on continues—and with Judge out, boy would that be likely—then it’s regrettably easy to envision the timeline where they fall apart and out of the Wild Card mix despite any Trade Deadline activity.

The best-case scenario has Judge missing a few days like Juan Soto did in June 2024 when he had an elbow issue, and then getting back to the MVP-caliber swing of things. The worst-case? If Judge rests and still feels OK hitting but can’t field, then even if he decides to push surgery to the offseason, the Yankees have two exclusive righty-hitting DHs. Uh-oh.

This stinks. We’ll keep you posted on more news as it comes in.