{"id":299736,"date":"2026-07-18T23:34:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T23:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/299736\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T23:34:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T23:34:19","slug":"yankees-notebook-specialists-agree-with-aaron-judge-rib-evaluation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/299736\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Notebook: Specialists agree with Aaron Judge rib evaluation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A specialist agreed with the Yankees<\/a>\u2019 team doctor\u2019s assessment of Aaron Judge<\/a>\u2018s fractured rib, confirming that the slugger is not ready to resume baseball activities.<\/p>\n

Judge underwent re-imaging Wednesday<\/a> that showed his injured right rib is healing but still needs more time.<\/p>\n

The Yankees heard back Friday night from Texas-based Dr. Gregory Pearl, who agreed with team physician Chris Ahmad\u2019s initial evaluation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needs to get to a point where he\u2019s asymptomatic to where you really start ramping up more upper-body stuff,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said Saturday, shortly after the Yankees\u2019 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers was rained out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is the pain is subsiding somewhat over the last couple of weeks and changing from that sharp [feeling] to more of that dull. So, hopefully he continues to improve there and we can start upping things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge has not appeared in a game since May 31 and has been on the injured list since June 5.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Yankees moved Judge to the 60-day IL \u2014 a procedural move to make room on the 40-man roster for right-hander Bradley Hanner, whom they signed and sent to Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre.<\/p>\n

Judge \u2014 a three-time American League MVP, including in each of the past two seasons \u2014 is hitting .248 with 17 home runs and a .907 OPS in 59 games.<\/p>\n

The Yankees (54-43) are 18-20 without him.<\/p>\n

Judge said Friday that he \u201cdefinitely\u201d expects to return this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to just prematurely start doing some things and hurt us in the long run,\u201d Judge said.<\/p>\n

SCHMIDT STEP<\/p>\n

Clarke Schmidt threw a live batting practice session at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, marking his first time facing hitters since undergoing Tommy John surgery last summer.<\/p>\n

Schmidt threw 15 pitches \u2014 all fastballs, cutters or sinkers \u2014 to Anthony Volpe and Ali S\u00e1nchez but threw breaking balls during his warmup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt good,\u201d Schmidt, 30, said. \u201cNice and easy. I felt like I was moving really well, and it felt good to have some competition and compete again and get some cleats on the dirt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schmidt expects to throw another live session in four or five days and to implement breaking balls that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be a crazy amount of lives,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cBut the plan is right now, on a four-or-five-day schedule, just keep throwing lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schmidt was 4-4 with a 3.32 ERA in 14 starts last year before his season ended prematurely.<\/p>\n

With limited time for Schmidt to build up his pitch count, the right-hander said he would be open to any role later in the season, including being an opener or a bridge reliever.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the only thing on my mind right now: I want to help this team,\u201d Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I care about my career and the long-term and stuff like that, but for me right now, I know how talented we are. I\u2019ve seen the upside of this team throughout the season, so being a part of that and being able to help in any way I can is something that, when I lay my head down at night, is all I\u2019m thinking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

TO THE MAX<\/p>\n

The reviews of Max Fried\u2019s first rehab start<\/a> were positive.<\/p>\n

Fried, who last pitched in the majors on May 13 due to a left elbow bone bruise, threw 52 pitches over three innings on Friday night with Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre.<\/p>\n

The left-hander limited Worcester to two runs and struck out three without a walk.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked really good,\u201d Boone said Saturday. \u201cI watched his whole outing. He felt really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fried is set to make another rehab start before the Yankees evaluate his next step. The 32-year-old is 4-3 with a 3.21 ERA in 10 starts this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A specialist agreed with the Yankees\u2019 team doctor\u2019s assessment of Aaron Judge\u2018s fractured rib, confirming that the slugger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10094,68633,34720,20,9,11,10,16301],"class_list":["post-299736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-aaron-judge","tag-clarke-schmidt","tag-max-fried","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}