Yankees' Aaron Judge locked in at plate? Results from Tigers sweep might be key

There are certain topics that will earn a quick shutdown from Aaron Judge.

Anything that even approaches the periphery of public criticism of a teammate, for instance, simply isn’t going to happen.

Nursing an injury of any kind?

Much like the club’s previous captain, Derek Jeter, good luck with that.

“If you’re hurt, you’re not playing,” Jeter often said. “And if you’re playing, you’re not hurt.”

Judge is very much cut from the same mold.

And the same is true when Judge is asked about feeling “locked in” at the plate when he’s going well offensively.

That hasn’t been the case often in 2024, though signs emerged last weekend during the Yankees’ three-game sweep of the Tigers that the centerfielder could be starting to find his stroke.

“Not until I’m hitting 1.000, then I’ll say we’re getting there,” Judge said Sunday after going 2-for-3 with a homer and a double. “I think I told you guys that plenty.”

That, of course, is an understatement.

Even during his 2022 AL MVP campaign Judge would never, under any circumstance, publicly talk about feeling particularly “good” at the plate or being in any kind of “zone.”

And certainly not locked in.

“It’s a good start and just keep it rolling after this off day [Monday],” Judge, who entered Tuesday night hitting .220 with seven homers and a .789 OPS for the season, said Sunday.

Judge, naturally, wasn’t going to make too much of a productive three days at the plate — a trio of games in which he went 5-for-10 with a homer and two doubles.

Judge, after all, didn’t make an issue out of a rough first month, which, ugly as it was at times, is just a sliver of the 162-game regular season. So three games certainly wouldn’t make the cut in that regard.

Still, the signs coming into the Yankees three-game series against the Astros pointed toward an upward offensive trend for the team’s captain, something Judge’s manager, as well as his teammates, felt was inevitable.

“Just a matter of time,” Aaron Boone said more than once in April of a Judge resurgence.

“I do feel like he’s looking better to me, but he’s still working to get all the way there,” Boone said Sunday.

When the Yankees traded for Juan Soto in the winter, they envisioned having one of the best — if not the best — 2-3 combinations in the sport with Soto and Judge hitting back-to-back.

Soto has more than held up his end of that, entering Tuesday leading the club in batting average (.316), on-base percentage (.421), home runs (eight), RBIs (28), slugging (.559) and OPS (.980).

Soto was tied for the team lead in walks with Judge at 26, an indication the latter, even as he’s struggled (Judge came into Tuesday the AL leader in strikeouts with 44), was finding a way to get on base.

“It was just a tough month for him,” Soto said. “I feel like he’s doing his stuff right and he’s going to be great. I’m not even worried about Judge. I’ve always been happy hitting in front of him and I know what kind of hitter he is.”

Extra bases

Before Tuesday night’s game, Boone said top outfield prospect Jasson Dominguez, could be cleared “inside of two weeks” to start rehab games. Dominguez's electric start to his MLB career was cut short after eight games last September because of a UCL tear that necessitated season-ending Tommy John surgery.

“He’ll start, probably the first two weeks, it will be all DH,” Boone said of the 21-year-old, who has been doing his rehab at the club’s minor league complex in Tampa. “He’s been doing live BPs and all his defensive stuff, so getting close.” . . . Gerrit Cole (right elbow inflammation) threw another bullpen session Tuesday afternoon (he threw the first one of his rehab on Saturday) and is slated to join the club on its trip to Tampa on Thursday to continue rehabbing at the minor league complex. “Everything’s gone well so far,” Boone said. “Still got a ways to go on it, but exciting that he’s getting back out there again.”

There continues to be no timeline — at least, none given publicly — for Cole’s return though, from the time the elbow inflammation was diagnosed in mid-March, the organization would have signed up for a return by July 1, a date that remains a possibility.