With only nine games left in the regular season after Friday, Judge\u2019s injury threatens to be a serious blow to the Yankees\u2019 October hopes and dreams.<\/p>\n
The earliest Judge can be activated off the IL \u2014 he will officially be placed on it Saturday, but retroactive to Thursday \u2014 is in time for Game 162, though there is doubt over whether he will even be ready by then.<\/p>\n
The AL wild-card series, which the Yankees are all but assured to play in with their chances of catching the Rays for the division slim, begins on Sept. 29. <\/p>\n
Once again, Judge will be racing the clock to try to get back in time, creating major concerns for the Yankees as they head down the stretch without their best player.<\/p>\n
![\"Aaron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/new-york-yankees-aaron-judge-141384060_7ad3a2.jpg\")
Yankees\u2019 Aaron Judge walks back to the dugout after striking out in the third inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins. AP Photo\/Abbie Parr<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/new-york-yankees-right-fielder-141140487.jpg\")
Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) runs off the field after the first inning against the Minnesota Twins. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
When Judge spent most of the summer months on the IL, the Yankees\u2019 offense largely cratered without him, though they had started to break out of their malaise shortly before he returned on Sept. 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n Judge\u2019s injury will create further scrutiny as to whether he should have gone on a rehab assignment instead of coming straight back into games. The captain was adamant about not wanting to waste time playing in minor league games, and the Yankees \u2014 who could not force Judge to go on a rehab assignment \u2014 tried to ease him back in carefully. <\/p>\n They played him for six innings in his first game back \u2014 much to his chagrin \u2014 then eight innings, then an off day. Judge then played four straight games through Monday\u2019s playoff clincher<\/a> before the Yankees sat him again on Tuesday, after which they were hopeful he would essentially be a full go.<\/p>\n But then came the nightmare, when Judge felt some calf tightness while playing the field in the bottom of the first inning and then by the top of the sixth, was pinch hit for by Heliot Ramos.<\/p>\n Before the injury, Judge was still trying to lock in his timing at the plate after a long layoff, batting 4-for-23 (.174) with a .513 OPS and one home run. These final three series were supposed to be about getting him in a good spot for the postseason, but now he will spend them getting treatment and rehabbing in hopes of playing again.<\/p>\n Fellow Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton suffered a calf strain in late April and has not played another game since, though he was initially on the verge of a return in June before suffering two more calf strains since.<\/p>\n Judge, after leaving Wednesday\u2019s game against the Twins early, likened the issue to something he would deal with in spring training while building up his workload, except it is now September.<\/p>\n In the meantime, the Yankees were expected to use Ramos in right field on Friday against Diamondbacks lefty Eduardo Rodr\u00edguez, and he will likely get the majority of the time there down the stretch.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even before Judge\u2019s injury, the Yankees were already dealing with a few players trying to make a comeback in time for the playoffs, including Jazz Chisholm Jr. (right thumb sprain<\/a>), Trent Grisham (right hamstring strain<\/a>) and Ryan Weathers (left forearm flexor strain<\/a>). Grisham, who is in the midst of a running progression, now has a potential lane to come back in center field, which would bump Spencer Jones to right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 The verdict is in, and it is not good. Aaron Judge is going on the 10-day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10094,20,9,11,10,321,319],"class_list":["post-350610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-aaron-judge","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350610","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=350610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}