NEW YORK — For 59 straight games, Aaron Judge wrote his name on the Yankees lineup card and said nothing about the pain. He kept swinging through it, kept playing every day, and kept the discomfort to himself. Then his manager noticed something was off, and a quiet problem became the biggest story in the Bronx.
Now the Yankees face an uneasy wait. Their captain, the two-time reigning American League MVP, is headed to a specialist, and the team will not rule out a trip to the injured list.
A streak ends and the questions begin
Judge was absent from the Yankees lineup Tuesday for the first time all season. New York hosted the Cleveland Guardians at Yankee Stadium without him and lost 9-4. Jose Caballero started in right field in his place.
The decision to sit Judge followed imaging done on Monday, the team’s off day. Those tests revealed a bone bruise. Until Tuesday, Judge had started all 59 of the Yankees’ games, 53 in right field and six at designated hitter. The iron-man stretch is over, at least for now.
Manager Aaron Boone delivered the news before first pitch and could not offer a firm timeline. The uncertainty was obvious in his words.
“Could be a few days, could be longer,” Boone said. “I don’t know for sure. Hopefully we avoided something serious.”
The injury hid in plain sight for weeks
Here is the part that reframes Judge’s entire recent slump. According to Boone, the captain had been managing nagging soreness in his shoulder area for the last couple of weeks. Judge never volunteered that he was hurting. It took his manager stepping in to force the issue.
Boone explained that he was the one who raised it, after watching Judge’s swings during the weekend series in Sacramento against the Athletics. Something looked wrong to him.
“I kind of said something,” Boone said of approaching Judge, who had not disclosed any discomfort on his own. The manager added that the issue appeared to affect Judge’s swinging far more than his throwing.
The diagnosis points to a bone bruise in Judge’s right rib cage, though he feels the pain mostly in his right shoulder, and only when he swings. Team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad examined Judge on Tuesday and agreed with the initial finding from the imaging. Boone admitted the location was tricky to pin down, describing it as more of an upper rib cage problem bleeding into the shoulder.
Numbers that suddenly make sense
The timing explains a lot. Judge has been productive on the season but visibly off at the plate for weeks. He is batting .248 with 17 home runs, 38 RBI, 10 doubles, 42 walks and a .907 OPS. That batting average would be his lowest in a full major league season.
The recent dip is sharper. Over his last 18 games since May 10, Judge has hit just one home run. During May, he batted .243 with five homers and an .805 OPS, including an 11-game stretch without a long ball. Against the Athletics over the weekend, he went 2-for-12 with two RBI singles, two walks and three strikeouts.
For a hitter who won back-to-back MVPs and a 2025 batting title with a .331 average and 53 homers, those slumping numbers always seemed odd. A bone bruise affecting his swing offers a clear explanation.
The injured list looms over the decision
Here is the central question now. The Yankees are not ruling out an injured list stint, but for the moment Judge is considered day-to-day. The specialist review is the pivot point.
Judge was scheduled to be examined by a specialist on Wednesday for a second opinion. Boone made clear the team wanted outside eyes on a confusing injury before settling on a plan.
“It’s kind of a unique spot,” Boone said. “We’ll have the specialist probably look at it tomorrow and see where we’re at and see how he feels with it.”
Pressed on how long Judge might be out, Boone could not commit to anything. His honesty captured the team’s unease heading into Wednesday.
“Tough to say,” Boone said. “We’ll look at it, and that’s why we want a specialist to look at it too and just try and rule out anything or see if there’s something else to see.”
A worrying echo of past Judge injuries
Yankees fans have reason to hold their breath, because Judge has a history with this part of his body. Boone suspected the current issue may have started on a diving play in right field, though Judge was not certain of the origin.
That scenario carries a painful memory. In September 2019, Judge hurt himself on a diving catch attempt, an injury later diagnosed as a rib stress fracture in March 2020, and a partially collapsed right lung. He felt that discomfort in his right shoulder area too. He would have missed part of the following season’s first half had the 2020 schedule not been delayed by the pandemic.
Boone praised how carefully Judge has handled his body in recent years, picking his spots on risky plays. Even so, the manager acknowledged the limits of caution.
“He picks his spots here and there, but you can’t avoid everything,” Boone said.
Despite the concern, Boone framed the early read as encouraging. Based on the imaging and the diagnosis, the team believes it dodged the worst. The Yankees called the initial findings overall good news, while stressing they would know more once the specialist weighed in. For a club sitting at 36-23, second-best in the AL, the health of their captain outweighs any single result on the field.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
