{"id":683480,"date":"2026-06-04T07:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/683480\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T07:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:49:12","slug":"aaron-judges-injury-looming-large-as-yankees-brace-for-clearer-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/683480\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Judge’s injury looming large as Yankees brace for clearer diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The waiting game continued Wednesday evening, the story looming over anything that happened on the field for the Yankees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With so much uncertainty swirling about the status of Aaron Judge, a bone bruise near his right rib cage <\/a>that\u2019s impacting his swing and how much time the Yankees\u2019 superstar could miss, the only thing that\u2019d become certain by first pitch was that he wasn\u2019t in the lineup for a second consecutive night.<\/p>\n

Judge, who last played Sunday, underwent imaging on the team\u2019s day off Monday, met with team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad on Tuesday and saw a specialist Wednesday. <\/p>\n

When manager Aaron Boone met with reporters before the game, the specialist was still reviewing the images, preventing Boone from getting an answer he\u2019d hoped to have at that point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judge was left to work out in the weight room, get treatment and await his fate \u2014 whether this was a best-case scenario that didn\u2019t involve the injured list, a short stint on the IL or something more long term that could threaten to derail the Yankees\u2019 strong start. <\/a><\/p>\n

And the Yankees were left to tweak their lineup, with Jos\u00e9 Caballero in right field and Ben Rice as their lineup\u2019s power source.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewYankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) looks on in the dugout in the fourth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Yankee Stadium, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

Asked how long the Yankees would go without Judge being an option before making a transaction, Boone said he didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of depends on probably this diagnosis with the doctors and seeing where he\u2019s at [Wednesday] and [Thursday],\u201d Boone said.<\/p>\n

So the Yankees needed to pivot again. They needed to start Caballero in right field again, a spot the utilityman \u2014 who Boone said the Yankees \u201ctrust in a lot of places\u201d \u2014 hadn\u2019t played since September before opening the game there Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They needed to rely on Rice, in just his second full MLB season, as their lineup\u2019s anchor, banking on the lefty slugger\u2019s ability to adapt if pitchers approach him differently without Judge lurking in the on-deck circle. Rice entered Wednesday\u2019s game with a six-game streak of reaching base multiple times \u2014 his second tear of that length this season \u2014 and had hit .500 with 11 RBIs across that stretch, adding to his 17 homers and 44 RBIs this season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s stepping into anything,\u201d Boone said of Rice. \u201cNothing changes. He\u2019s been one of the best players in the league. There\u2019s not a requirement to now do more. It\u2019s not a, \u2018He\u2019s gotta go to another level.\u2019 I don\u2019t know where you go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boone and the Yankees hoped initially that Judge, someone they\u2019ve struggled without in recent seasons, could miss only a few days and that they avoided anything serious.<\/p>\n

His last stint on the IL occurred in July 2025 \u2014 and caused him to miss 10 games \u2014 due to a flexor strain in his right elbow. He also missed more than a month in 2023 with a torn ligament in his big right toe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewYankees\u2019 Ben Rice (22) strikes out in the sixth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

It forced the Yankees to find ways to cobble together production to replace the three-time American League MVP, who also won the AL batting title last year (.331 average) and has collected another 17 homers to start 2026.<\/p>\n

Recently, though, Judge struggled, going just 17-for-82 (.207) across his 22 games prior to Tuesday with 26 strikeouts. His average dipped to .248. He collected just six extra-base hits across that stretch and launched just one homer since May 11.<\/p>\n

Judge went a career-worst 11 games without an RBI last month, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a concerning stretch, even for one of the sport\u2019s best hitters. Boone admitted Wednesday that \u201cI think there is some correlation\u201d between the nagging injury that gradually worsened and the slump.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s learned how to play through things really well, which is a skill and it requires a skill and a toughness and just a know-how to kind of go through the day and what you need to do to be ready and things like that,\u201d Boone said when asked if Judge\u2019s durability and desire to play every game is a bit of a throwback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he takes a lot of pride in that durability. He had some injuries earlier in his career that derailed him a number of games, so it\u2019s important that he goes to the post and is available and he\u2019s done a great job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boone thought the Yankees were better equipped to handle a Judge absence than they were in past seasons. They failed in their first glimpse of life without Judge. Wednesday gave them another glimpse of how they could initially attempt to survive, regardless of his absence\u2019s length.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The waiting game continued Wednesday evening, the story looming over anything that happened on the field for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[1992,4260,27449,363,369,99],"class_list":["post-683480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-aaron-boone","tag-aaron-judge","tag-ben-rice","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683480","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=683480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}