Yankees' Aaron Judge says he still can't walk without pain

A little more than three weeks after suffering a right big toe sprain, Aaron Judge still can’t walk without feeling pain from what he said Saturday is a torn ligament.

“Oh, yeah,” Judge said about feeling pain. “Everything.”

Judge stood near his locker in the Yankees’ clubhouse early Saturday afternoon and provided an update on the injury he suffered June 3 at Dodger Stadium. It occurred when his right foot slammed hard  into the unpadded concrete base of the bullpen fence in rightfield while he was making a running catch of a long drive by J.D. Martinez.

And no, neither Judge nor the Yankees is any closer to giving a timetable for when the reigning American League MVP could be back.  

“I want to be out there. I’m frustrated with that,” Judge said of the pace of healing so far and still not having an idea of when he’ll return. “But it’s a different injury. I don’t think too many people in here have torn a ligament in their toe. If it was a quad, we’d have a better answer. If it’s an oblique, a hamstring, we’d have an answer on the timeline for that. But how unique this injury is and it being my back foot, which I hit off of, run off of . . .  push off of . . .  it’s a tough spot.”

Much was made of Judge saying the ligament was “torn” because the Yankees officially have his injury listed as a “right great toe sprain.”

But medically speaking, the most basic definition of a sprain is a ligament that is stretched or torn, so the Yankees’ categorization isn’t technically inaccurate.  It also is fair to point out that as an organization, the Yankees  generally downplay injuries.

Regardless, the primary takeaway from Judge’s media session Saturday wasn’t the semantics describing the injury but that there’s been little tangible improvement — at least based on the way Judge talked about it.

“It feels better but it’s not great,” he said. “If it was feeling better, I’d be out there . . . Once we can manage the pain, we’re going to be in a good spot.”

In the last few days, Judge has begun pushing the medical staff to allow him to start doing some light baseball activities.

“More in passing, saying, ‘We’ve done a lot of stuff in here, we’re making some great progress, let’s test it with what I’m actually going to be doing on the field,' ” Judge said.

How those tests will manifest themselves — and when — is not yet clear. But what was clear from Judge’s comments on Saturday — as well as his manager’s — is the continued uncertainty surrounding the injury.

“He will do a little bit more each and every day, but not to the point where he’s running or doing full baseball stuff,” Aaron Boone said. “We just have to continue to wait and get him there. He’s obviously as tough as they come. We know he wants to be back out there, so we’ll just keep trying to get him healed and treated and hope for the best.”

Said Judge: “If I could run, I would be out there playing defense, doing my thing. We’d figure out hitting. But if I can’t move, that’s the main hurdle I have to get over.”

Does he feel close to being able to run?

“Not necessarily,” Judge said. “We might be close. I don’t know. That’s why I kind of [want to] test how it’s feeling in the cage, playing catch and see how that feels. I know I’m not giving you guys much. I wish I had a better answer.”

As he does when it comes to a timetable for coming back.

“I’m not giving you any timeline. There’s no need,” Judge said. “I just have to get better and then I’ll be out there. Once we have a clearer picture and we’re doing baseball stuff, then we’ll have a timeline. I really don’t know.”