NEW YORK \u2014 New York Yankees star Aaron Judge said he doesn\u2019t plan on a rehab assignment before returning from the fractured right rib that has kept him out of the lineup since June 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy waste at-bats?\u201d he said Thursday afternoon, speaking to reporters in the clubhouse at Yankee Stadium before the finale of a four-game series against the Houston Astros. \u201cWhy waste anything down in a minor-league game? I\u2019ve been doing this for a while now, and I\u2019ve got a sense of what I need to do on the field and how to manage it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge pointed to how he missed nearly two months with a toe injury in 2023 and didn\u2019t do a rehab assignment. After he returned that season, he posted a .966 OPS in 57 games.<\/p>\n
Where old Yankee Stadium once stood, a decrepit park remains<\/p>\n
Sam Blum and Johnny Sweet<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a good spot,\u201d he said. \u201cThere haven\u2019t been any setbacks, which has been the greatest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge said he doesn\u2019t expect the Yankees to fight him on not playing in any rehab games. Cody Bellinger played in just two rehab games after missing nearly a month with a strained left hamstring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like if I tell them I\u2019m ready to go play,\u201d Judge said, \u201cI think we\u2019re ready to go play. I\u2019m not a pitcher. I\u2019m a position player. I get my reps down here in the cage, and I\u2019ve been to every game. I\u2019ve been sitting there in the dugout watching every game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said that to me, too,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said. \u201cIf and when we get to that point, we\u2019ll work through all that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boone cautioned that part of playing in rehab games is also \u201cjust building guys up and getting them used to playing and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s also creative ways of doing that, too, though,\u201d Boone said. \u201cAs we get closer to that point, we\u2019ll make that decision collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Yankees\u2019 bats have missed Judge badly. They went into Thursday ranked 26th in runs scored (290) and second-to-last in wRC+ (89) since their first game with Judge out of the lineup on June 2.<\/p>\n
Judge also said he expected to return to the lineup as a full-time right fielder and that he\u2019ll \u201cplay smart\u201d when it comes to diving. The 6-foot-7, 282-pounder suffered the injury diving for a fly ball but tried to play through the pain for weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still going to go out there and make every play I can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that even if he doesn\u2019t return with the same amount of power or bat speed after being away so long, \u201ceven if it\u2019s a tick off, I think it\u2019s still better than nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old said he believes he\u2019ll be able to substitute rehab games with a bevy of other workouts, including facing a Trajekt pitching machine, which uses a screen to imitate specific MLB pitchers\u2019 deliveries and pitch movement. He said he could also stand in while rehabbing pitchers face live hitters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of options to get that timing back,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not really expecting it to take me too long to get the timing back. Hopefully it\u2019ll be quick, and we\u2019ll get back out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boone said it\u2019s been good knowing that Judge hasn\u2019t had any setbacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing now is, again, not so much even the injury as it is building the body up to handle the rigors,\u201d the manager said. \u201cBecause, again, being down for a month and a half and not doing much other than riding a bike. \u2026 So, it\u2019s getting that running up to speed. Getting all the strength in line. Getting used to swinging 20, 30 (or) 50 times a day. Getting all those muscles used to that. That\u2019s the biggest thing. So far, seems to be going well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 New York Yankees star Aaron Judge said he doesn\u2019t plan on a rehab assignment before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[21850,363,369,99],"class_list":["post-828066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-fantasy-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828066","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=828066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}