Yankees must do more than just hoping Aaron Judge will return soon
The Yankees' Aaron Judge looks on from the dugout during an MLB game against the Cubs at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It was such a tenuous rumor – the sort of thing that immediately sounds too good to be true. But if you’re a Yankees fan, it was a lifeboat, a signal flare, a little shred of hope in this tedious trudge through a largely disappointing season.
Bret Boone – Aaron Boone’s big brother – said on the “Zach Gelb Show” that he’d heard “grumblings” that Aaron Judge was set to return from the torn ligament in his big toe “right after the All-Star break.” The source wasn’t his brother, he said; he’d just heard it around.
To be clear, general manager Brian Cashman fully put the kibosh on the idea that Judge, who skipped the All-Star Game and hasn’t played in a month and a half, would suit up when the Yankees go to Colorado Friday.
“He hasn’t even had a rehab assignment or run (the) bases,” he told Newsday via text. There is no clear date for his return, though it’ll be sometime in the second half, he said.
But you can’t blame fans for wanting to believe the unbelievable.
This Yankees season has been mired in mediocrity, and this last week has only highlighted some of its failures: they dropped a series against the Cubs, had only Gerrit Cole to represent them at the All-Star Game, and their Judge-less offensive woes led to Cashman firing hitting coach Dillon Lawson – something that made Lawson the first coach Cashman has ever fired mid-season.
Given all that, of course fans wanted to believe – after all, it was Judge who carried this team during their mid-season swoon last year.
As the Yankees head into the trade deadline, though. They can’t afford to fall into the same kind of trap.
From everything we’ve heard, it does sound like Judge is making strides toward a return – something that didn’t feel all that possible even a week and a half ago, when he said he didn’t think it would “ever feel normal,” mentioned the possibility of offseason surgery, and pointed out that injuries could affect you years after the fact.
But given this team’s offensive malaise and Judge’s nebulous return time, it would behoove Cashman and Co. to approach these next two weeks as if their captain left his superhero shield at the shop.
They need an outfielder. They could definitely use a lefthanded hitter. Starting pitching help wouldn’t hurt. And no, Josh Donaldson and DJ LeMahieu at third base aren’t working out.
It’s a big, expensive list, but one the front office needs to address if it's going to give his team a shot. They’re entering the second half just one game out of the wild card, and have a light-ish schedule to close things out – 16th hardest out of 30, according to Tankathon. That, though, can get out of hand in a hurry if the Yankees don't make some big moves.
There are no-brainers, like pursuing Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto on the off chance that either are available, and more difficult decisions, like considering whether to designate Josh Donaldson for assignment (and praying Donaldson doesn’t exact some poetic justice if he ends up on another AL East team).
Lucas Giolito and Marcus Stroman are both expected to be on the market. Cardinals GM John Mozeliak has all but put one of the wacky waving inflatable tube men outside of Busch Stadium: Everyone must go! (Lars Nootbaar? Tommy Edman? Dylan Carlson? Jordan Montgomery, the sequel?!)
Seems like a lot, right? Well, they need it.
The Yankees have a .667 OPS in the 31 games since June 3, Judge’s last game – 27th worst in baseball. In that span, they’ve gone 14-17, have 109 RBIs (28th), and have a minus-19 run differential (23rd). They’ve survived on the back of their pitching – a staff-wide 3.80 ERA, and pivotally, their bullpen and its 3.11 ERA, which is second-best in MLB.
Even if Judge does return in, say, a month, there are a ton of variables. He, himself, thinks he’ll be in some measure of pain, and that right foot bears a lot of weight when he’s swinging. The Yankees may opt to DH him more often, meaning they lose his defense – a way-too-overlooked part of his game. And, despite evidence to the contrary, he is actually human, meaning there might even be some rust.
All of this leads to one conclusion: The Yankees can’t blindly hope on Judge, no matter how attractive an option that is.
As if to illustrate the point, it was on July 3 that Judge and Cole went on TODAY, and Judge told host Craig Melvin that he expected the All-Star break to buy him a couple days and “hopefully I’ll be back out there soon.”
“What I just heard is Aaron Judge is coming back right after the All-Star game,” Melvin said, while Cole put up his hands in prayer.
A day later, Judge told reporters that his toe “doesn’t feel great,” and made those comments about it being something he has to manage for an extended period of time.
Hope given. Hope vanquished. That’s why the Yankees have to act on more than hope.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
