If Yankees can just get into the playoffs, maybe Aaron Judge and their mojo will return
Yankees' Aaron Judge looks on against the Seattle Mariners during an MLB baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, June 22, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Three weeks ago, I was sitting in a bar/restaurant that had the Yankees-Dodgers game on the big TV with the sound off. I happened to look up to see Aaron Judge crash into the chain-link fence in rightfield at Dodger Stadium while making one of the most amazing catches I’ve ever seen.
I did not know I was witnessing the end of the Yankees’ season. At least that’s what the vast majority of Yankees fans had to be feeling on Saturday when they heard the news — delivered by Judge himself — that the toe injury he suffered while making that amazing catch was not improving. Not at all.
A torn toe ligament, Judge told reporters, and that has to be as painful as it sounds.
But you know what? The Yankees’ season did not end June 3 at Chavez Ravine. It did not end Saturday, when Judge played Walter Cronkite and revealed what every person with the Yankees probably already knew: He’s not coming back anytime soon.
Tough news. But the Yankees have to deal with it and find a way to win anyway.
This isn’t the NBA, where an injury to a star can sink a season. This isn’t the NFL. Judge isn’t Aaron Rodgers, with only Zach Wilson as a backup.
Is it a tall order? Sure, as tall as Judge, if you mean expecting the Yankees to win the World Series without the MVP. But they still can get into the six-team AL postseason even if he misses a huge chunk of time, which sure seems likely now.
The other day, Judge’s predecessor as Yankees captain, Derek Jeter, had this to say: “I don’t think anyone in the Yankee organization is just going to sit there and say, ‘Hey, we just got to get into the playoffs.’ I just think that’s the wrong mentality to have.”
Sorry, Mr. Hall of Famer, five-time World Series champion and budding baseball announcer for Fox, but for the 2023 Yankees, it’s exactly the right mentality to have. Just get in, baby, and then let the postseason chips fall where they may.
Who knows? Maybe Judge will even be ready to play when October comes around.
What we do know for sure is that after their 1-0 victory over the Texas Rangers on Saturday, the Yankees own one of the three AL wild-card spots, even with all that has befallen them in 2023.
Unlike, say, the Mets — the new Worst Team Money Could Buy — the Yankees are squarely in the postseason picture.
And their first-round opponent, as things stood going into Saturday, would be the Yankees’ perennial postseason patsies, the Minnesota Twins.
Still, it’s OK for fans to curse fate and light a candle for Judge’s toe. It’s not OK for the players to do the same, and there’s no evidence they are. The Yankees aren’t light on team spirit right now; they’re just light on results from key offensive players.
That means Giancarlo Stanton, the closest person the Yankees have to Judge in terms of stature and pedigree. The former NL MVP, who went into Saturday hitless in his previous 20 at-bats, grounded a single to left in the second and raised his arms at first base as if to say, “Hallelujah!”
And it means DJ LeMahieu and Josh Donaldson, both of whom were not in the lineup but need to hit like something approaching a two-time batting champ (LeMahieu) and a former AL MVP (Donaldson).
And Gleyber Torres and Harrison Bader and Anthony Rizzo, who between them went 2-for-10 with a walk Saturday.
The Yankees’ run came via a fourth-inning home run by Billy McKinney, the latest Brian Cashman bargain-bin find to prosper in pinstripes. The Yankees used six innings from Luis Severino and clutch relief pitching to improve to 7-10 since Judge went out.
“We can pitch,” Aaron Boone said. “We know we can hold teams down, and hopefully we start to get the offense cooking a little bit. We know what we can be, but we’re a long way from a finished product.”
By that, it sounds as if Boone is saying the Yankees will add offense before the trade deadline. He’s right. The Yankees should be buyers. They should go for it, toe woe or no.
And when Judge is ready to join the party, then the real Yankees season can begin.
The October one. Just like when Jeter played.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
