{"id":852653,"date":"2026-09-18T23:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T23:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/852653\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T23:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T23:56:12","slug":"yankees-to-place-aaron-judge-on-il-with-calf-strain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/852653\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees To Place Aaron Judge On IL With Calf Strain"},"content":{"rendered":"

6:49pm:\u00a0Max Schuemann<\/a> will be recalled in a corresponding move, manager Aaron Boone tells reporters (relayed by Bryan Hoch of MLB.com<\/a>). Boone declined to provide a timeline on Judge\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

4:23pm: The Yankees announced that outfielder Aaron Judge<\/a> will be placed on the 10-day injured list tomorrow with a right calf strain. The corresponding move will be announced at that time. Judge last played on September 16, so the transaction could be backdated to September 17. That would allow him to return to the final game of the season on September 27, though it\u2019s unclear if his calf will be healthy by then.<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t a lot of details around Judge\u2019s current condition but it\u2019s obviously a notable and concerning development. Judge is one of the best offensive players on the planet, if not the very best. He already has four seasons of 50-plus homers and has finished with a wRC+ over 200 three times.<\/p>\n

But this season has been marred by injuries. He hit the IL in early June, retroactively applied to June 2, with a stress fracture in the first rib on his right side. It took him over three months to get back to the team, as he wasn\u2019t reinstated until September 7. Just over a week later, on September 16, he was removed from that day\u2019s game with tightness in his lower right leg.<\/p>\n

In the short term, it doesn\u2019t change too much for the Yankees. With or without Judge, the most likely outcome is the Yanks make the playoffs as the top Wild Card team in the American League. They are five games back of the Rays with ten games left to play for both of those clubs, and also 5.5 games up on the Red Sox, who are currently the second Wild Card team and have nine games to play. Catching the Rays or slipping behind the Red Sox are outcomes that are technically possible but unlikely.<\/p>\n

The larger concern will be beyond that. Even if Judge can come back by the playoffs, he might not be his usual self. He didn\u2019t go out on a rehab assignment before being activated this month, so he has hardly played any official game action since May. He hit .174\/.208\/.304 in 24 plate appearances between IL stints, striking out in 13 of those, a 54.2% clip.<\/p>\n

If the calf injury lingers and keeps him out of the lineup, then that\u2019s an even bigger problem. Assuming the Yankees don\u2019t catch the Rays, they won\u2019t secure a first-round bye. The Wild Card round of the playoffs begins September 29, just two days after the regular season ends.<\/p>\n

Time will tell how Judge progresses in the coming weeks. For now, the Yankees will have to return to their Judge-less alignment. They have Giancarlo Stanton<\/a>, Jazz Chisholm Jr.<\/a> and Trent Grisham<\/a> on the IL at the moment as well. Cody Bellinger<\/a> will be in left field most of the time. With Grisham out, Spencer Jones<\/a> is now the regular center fielder. Heliot Ramos<\/a> will probably be in right field against left-handed pitching. Jasson Dom\u00ednguez<\/a> is on optional assignment but he might be recalled for Judge tomorrow. If that happens, he could platoon with Ramos.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Brad Penner, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"6:49pm:\u00a0Max Schuemann will be recalled in a corresponding move, manager Aaron Boone tells reporters (relayed by Bryan Hoch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[4260,99],"class_list":["post-852653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-aaron-judge","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852653","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=852653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}