TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Aaron Judge fretted like many Yankees fans as big-name free agents kept signing elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was brutal,\u201d the New York captain said Monday after the year’s first full-squad workout. \u201cEarly on it was pretty tough to watch. I’m like: Man, we\u2019re the New York Yankees. Let’s go out there and get the right people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge spoke at length about the lack of a World Series title last year despite winning his third AL MVP award, of homering and striking out against 22-year-old flamethrower Carlos Lagrange during the workout, about captaining the U.S. in the upcoming World Baseball Classic and last year’s elbow injury.<\/p>\n
Judge missed 10 games between July 25 and Aug. 5 because of a flexor strain in his right elbow sustained making a throw home from right field at Toronto on July 22. He didn\u2019t return to the outfield until Sept. 5 and he threw gingerly at 67.9 mph. Judge gained arm strength during the rest of the season but didn\u2019t get to 100%.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never dealt with any elbow stuff, so I was definitely concerned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Judge wasn’t sure until after the postseason that he would avoid surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ran all the checks again and did all the tests and they said: `You\u2019re good to go,’\u201d he remembered. \u201cAnd I said: All right, when can we start throwing? So it was good. It was great. It was great to hear those words so that now I can go into the offseason and just prepare the way I need to be in the best shape to start the year.”<\/p>\n
His elbow is at full strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrowing to bases a couple of times already, so no worries,\u201d he said. \u201cJust excited to get back out there and just have the confidence, especially \u2014 that was the toughest thing for me last year, was the pitcher’s working his butt off and the guys around me were working their butt off and then the ball was hit to me and I had no shot.”<\/p>\n
Judge, who turns 34 in April, won his third AL MVP in four years, becoming just the fourth player in major league history to hit 50 homers four times after Babe Ruth, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. He won his first AL batting title, hitting a big league-best .331 with 53 homers, 114 RBIs, an AL-high 124 walks and a major league-leading 1.144 OPS. Then in the playoffs, he went 13 for 36 with one homer, seven RBIs and a 1.273 OPS.<\/p>\n
Judge appeared to clear the ballpark in left on a 99.3 mph from Lagrange (pronounced La-GRAN-he), then struck out on a 102.6 mph fastball from the 6-foot-7 right-hander, who ended last season at Double-A.<\/p>\n
New York, seeking its first title since 2009, retained center fielder Trent Grisham early in the offseason but didn’t make bigger moves until late.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s sign these guys right now and start adding more pieces because I\u2019m seeing other teams around the league get better,\u201d Judge said. \u201cThey\u2019re making trades. They\u2019re signing big prospects or big players. And we\u2019re sitting there for a while kind of making smaller moves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether he made his thoughts known to the Yankees, Judge flashed a toothy grin and said: \u201cYeah, oh, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was frustrating, but I think we\u2019re right where we need to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/MLB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Aaron Judge fretted like many Yankees fans as big-name free agents kept signing elsewhere.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[160359,2724,363,99],"class_list":["post-472676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ap-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}