{"id":95265,"date":"2025-08-25T06:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/95265\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T06:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:58:07","slug":"yankees-notes-judge-volpe-cruz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/95265\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Notes: Judge, Volpe, Cruz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaron Judge<\/a> has been hampered by a flexor strain in recent weeks. He first spent a minimum stint on the injured list to rest his ailing elbow, and since returning he\u2019s been limited to exclusively DH work. Earlier this week, some questions were raised<\/a> about just what shape Judge will be able to get his throwing arm back into before the end of the year. Fortunately, any concerns over Judge\u2019s ability to throw seem to be on hold for the time being as Judge started throwing to the bases from the outfield during pregame workouts today.<\/p>\n

The reigning AL MVP told reporters (including MLB.com\u2019s Bryan Hoch<\/a>) today that was about \u201cchecking a box\u201d\u00a0in his rehab and that he\u2019s sticking purely to what the team\u2019s trainers tell him to do as he works his way back into condition to resume regular duties in the outfield. Manager Aaron Boone<\/a>, meanwhile, told reporters (including The Athletic\u2019s Brendan Kuty<\/a>) that while Judge \u201clooked good\u201d throwing to second base today, there\u2019s still no timetable for his return to the grass in a game setting. Boone emphasized that the club feels it\u2019s important to take Judge\u2019s recovery process slowly in order to avoid re-injury.<\/p>\n

That, of course, makes sense given how important Judge\u2019s 196 wRC+ bat is to the lineup. Judge\u2019s .218\/.386\/.418 (126 wRC+) slash line since returning from the IL on August 5 isn\u2019t quite as robust as his usual otherworldly numbers, but it\u2019s still well above average production that virtually any other hitter in the sport would be happy with. In the meantime, Giancarlo Stanton<\/a> has begun playing in right field as a temporary solution to get his bat in the lineup while Judge occupies the DH slot.<\/p>\n

Stanton\u2019s return to the outfield isn\u2019t the only shakeup of the Yankees lineup from the past few days. Shortstop Anthony Volpe<\/a> has had a rough year on both sides of the ball, and today Boone made the decision to leave him out of the club\u2019s starting lineup with deadline addition Jose Caballero<\/a> starting at shortstop in his stead. Boone was non-committal before the game (as noted by Greg Joyce of the New York Post<\/a>) about when Volpe would return to the starting lineup, but he was used as a defensive replacement in tonight\u2019s game against the Red Sox. After a four-hit performance on August 1, Volpe has hit a paltry .121\/.171\/.242 in his last 19 games and was charged with an error in last night\u2019s contest. That was enough for the Yankees to decide mix things up for at least a little while, but Volpe suggested after the game to reporters (including Kuty<\/a>) that he\u2019ll be back in the lineup for Tuesday\u2019s game against the Nationals after sitting out tomorrow as well.<\/p>\n

For now, it seems like that this time out of the lineup is just an opportunity for Volpe to reset amid a tough stretch both at the plate and in the field. With that said, it\u2019s at least possible that the Yankees could be looking to get Caballero a bit more playing time. Since coming over from the Rays at this year\u2019s trade deadline, Caballero has slashed .320\/.433\/.600 in 31 plate appearances across 14 games with the organization. While Caballero is generally regarded as a below-average hitter overall, that recent hot streak in conjunction with his fairly well-regarded glove and impressive speed on the basepaths could be enough to earn the soon to be 29-year-old infielder some more playing time down the stretch, particularly if Volpe\u2019s struggles continue.<\/p>\n

On the pitching side of things, Hoch reports<\/a> that the Yankees are poised to get some reinforcements tomorrow when right-hander Fernando Cruz<\/a> is activated from the injured list. Cruz has been sidelined due to an oblique strain for nearly two months, but the 35-year-old had looked nothing short of excellent over the season\u2019s first half with a 3.00 ERA, 2.48 FIP, and an eye-popping 41.2% strikeout rate in 33 innings of work prior to the injury. If Cruz looks anything like that upon his return, he should be a massive asset to a Yankees bullpen that has struggled somewhat despite the aggressive addition of reinforcements at this summer\u2019s trade deadline. David Bednar<\/a>, Devin Williams<\/a>, Luke Weaver<\/a>, and Camilo Doval<\/a> have all taken turns in save situations but each has looked shaky of late, leaving plenty of opportunity for Cruz to fashion a key role for himself upon his return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Judge has been hampered by a flexor strain in recent weeks. He first spent a minimum stint…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[465,14251,49,48,55728,14925,462,82],"class_list":["post-95265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-judge","tag-anthony-volpe","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fernando-cruz","tag-jose-caballero","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95265","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=95265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}