Aaron Judge clears major Yankees comeback hurdle, but Boone turns update murky

TORONTO — Aaron Boone guards news about his captain Aaron Judge the way a team guards a top secrets. So when the Yankees manager stepped to the microphone Saturday at Rogers Centre, reporters expected the usual: warm words, no specifics, and a shrug about what comes next.

They got a genuine development anyway. They also got a Yankees manager who seemed to take one step forward and half a step back with nearly every sentence.

Judge clears a meaningful hurdle

For the first time since a fractured right rib sent him to the injured list, the Yankees slugger did baseball things. He played catch on Friday, his first throwing since the injury was diagnosed at the end of May. He also ran, another activity that had been off limits during his long shutdown.

The throwing matters more than it sounds. For a rib injury, the rotational stress of throwing is an early test of whether the bone can handle force. Clearing it moves Judge from passive rest into the active ramp-up phase of a rehab.

The step came nine days after fresh imaging of the rib showed enough healing to clear him for outdoor running and upper-body work in the weight room. Notably, Boone said Judge did not need another scan to begin playing catch, and that no further imaging was on the schedule for now.

Boone framed the day as real but early. He was careful not to oversell a single game of catch.

“He hasn’t done any baseball things for a while,” Boone said. “There’s a lot more to do still.”

Boone turns a clear step into a murky timeline

Here is where the update grew cloudy. A sideline report during Friday’s broadcast indicated Boone had suggested Judge might need about a month to return. Asked directly about that Saturday, the manager backed away from his own reported words.

“It might have been, ‘Could be,’ ” Boone said. “I don’t know. If things progress well, that could be in play, yes.”

That answer is the whole story in miniature. Boone confirmed a month is possible without committing to it, then wrapped it in conditions. A month from Saturday would point toward a mid-September return, matching earlier expectations, but the Yankees refuse to write it in ink.

Boone also declined to say what came next in the progression, or even whether Judge would throw again Saturday. He would not name the biggest remaining obstacle, though swinging a bat looms as the hurdle that matters most for a rib injury, and there is no date for when Judge might try it.

The manager returned again and again to the same guarded phrasing.

“We expect him back,” Boone said. “But we’re in the early stages of baseball activities. Hopefully things continue to go well.”

Why the Yankees cannot wait much longer

The urgency is written in the numbers. Judge has not played since May 31, when he carried a .248 average with a .375 on-base percentage, a .533 slugging mark, 17 home runs and 38 RBIs across 59 games. Even in what counted as a down year for him, he was the engine of the lineup.

Without him, the Yankees have scored 241 runs and fallen to the middle of the pack, ranking 15th in the majors with 547 total runs. Their .230 team batting average is the second worst in the American League. The team has gone 32-31 since Judge went down, sliding from 1.5 games back in the AL East to roughly seven back after Saturday.

The runway is short. Only 39 games remain on the schedule. Judge has insisted all along that he will return this season, and the back-to-back AL MVP still has boxes to check before he can.

Judge was not the only bat showing progress. Giancarlo Stanton, sidelined by a calf strain, ran the bases and hit on Friday. Cody Bellinger, out with a strained hamstring, ran sprints in the outfield and could begin a minor league rehab assignment this coming week if he feels no lingering discomfort.

Those returns would help. None would move the Yankees lineup the way Judge does.

The question that follows Boone into every dugout

The Yankees hold a lead in the wild-card race, so the postseason picture is not in immediate danger. The bigger prize, a real run in October, still runs through Judge’s surgically monitored rib.

Boone made the Yankees’ stance clear. The Yankees will not rush him, even with a heated postseason race pressing on the calendar.

“There’s still healing to go,” Boone said, “but he’s at the stage where he’s able to start ramping up.”

Judge has cleared a hurdle that had blocked him for months. Whether that clears a path to a September return, or simply moves the uncertainty to the next test, is the question now trailing the Yankees through the season’s final weeks.

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