The New York Yankees are still in limbo as they wait for Aaron Judge\u2019s flexor strain in his right arm to heal fully. Yankees manager Aaron Boone delivered the latest \u2014 and most concerning \u2014 update during appearances Tuesday morning on WFAN and Jomboy Media\u2019s \u201cTalkin\u2019 Yanks\u201d podcast.<\/p>\n
Boone told WFAN that the Yankees are trying to get to a place where Judge can throw with ease while also being able to protect himself. Judge is currently following a structured throwing routine \u2014 similar to what pitchers do when rehabbing before returning to the mound. He has moved from a routine catch-and-throw session to throwing from 150 feet, according to the latest update.<\/p>\n
Boone said he does not expect Judge to play right field during the two-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays beginning Tuesday night. He also added that he doesn\u2019t know if the two-time American League MVP will play the outfield in the four-game series against the Boston Red Sox this weekend. However, even if Judge returns to the outfield in 2025, it does not sound like he will be 100 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to see him back to throwing like he normally does at any point this year,\u201d Boone said. \u201cWe got to feel like he can go out there and be able to protect himself and represent himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boone had a similar response on the \u201cTalkin\u2019 Yanks\u201d podcast: \u201cHe\u2019ll probably have to play a little bit with a governor on it. But we\u2019re not going to put him out there until he can go out there safely and do it right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge initially sustained his injury on July 22 in Toronto. YES Network\u2019s cameras caught Judge grimacing after a throw from right field; Judge said he hurt his arm earlier in the game and not on that specific throw.<\/p>\n
Since then, Judge has not returned to the outfield. When the Yankees placed him on the injured list, Boone said imaging revealed \u201cno acute injury\u201d to Judge\u2019s ulnar collateral ligament. After returning to the lineup as a DH on Aug. 5 against the Texas Rangers, Judge\u2019s production has not been at his normal levels. In the 11 games since, Judge has an .855 OPS with two home runs, a double and six RBIs.<\/p>\n
Encouragingly, Judge\u2019s bat speed before sustaining his arm injury and since returning from the IL remains consistent at 76.9 mph. However, there has been a significant drop in Judge\u2019s contact quality metrics since his return. His wOBA<\/a> has fallen from .498 pre-injury to .363 post-injury. His average exit velocity<\/a> has decreased from 95.7 mph to 92.5 mph. His barrel percentage<\/a> has dropped from 27.3 percent to 11.5 percent.<\/p>\n Giancarlo Stanton will play right field at George M. Steinbrenner Field on Tuesday night. With Judge not able to play right field, the Yankees have had to play Stanton in the outfield for the first time since 2023, a move that was unexpected entering the season.<\/p>\n Judge\u2019s situation may remind Yankees fans of an injury situation that didn\u2019t have a satisfactory ending \u2014 Aaron Hicks\u2019 elbow ordeal in 2019. At the time, the team initially reported Hicks\u2019 UCL was intact following a flexor strain diagnosis. Just three months later, he underwent UCL surgery and faced an eight-to-10-month recovery timeline.<\/p>\n (Photo: Ron Jenkins \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Yankees are still in limbo as they wait for Aaron Judge\u2019s flexor strain in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,3980,82],"class_list":["post-81968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}