NEW YORK — Aaron Judge keeps circling the same word. Healing. He said it Friday at his locker, over and over, like a man trying to talk a fracture into cooperating. What he could not say was the one thing every Yankees fan wanted to hear.
When will he play again?
The captain does not know. His manager does not know. Even the doctors reading his latest scan had not signed off yet. For a first-place chase turning tense by the day, that uncertainty has become its own kind of pressure.
So the Yankees pushed forward without an answer, opening a weekend series against the two-time reigning World Series champion Dodgers at Yankee Stadium. Their best player watched from the dugout, stuck between a body that feels better and a medical staff that will not budge.
Into that vacuum stepped one of the sport’s most plugged-in reporters, willing to do what the Yankees would not. New York Post insider Jon Heyman offered a target date for Judge’s Yankees return. It is the first concrete date attached to a recovery that has felt open-ended for six weeks.
Judge sees healing but no green light
The reason no date exists starts with the scan itself. Aaron Judge underwent re-imaging on his fractured right rib during the All-Star break. The results were encouraging, but incomplete. He chose to lead with the positive.
“It’s definitely a positive sign that we’re seeing some healing,” Judge said.
Then came the caveat that has kept him in street clothes. The rib is not fully healed, so Judge has not been cleared to resume baseball activities. He described a recovery still in progress, one piece mending while another lags behind.
“Part of its healing. The other part of it is still trying to bridge together,” Judge said.
His confidence about returning this season, though, has not wavered. Asked directly if he would be back before the year ends, he did not flinch.
“I don’t see why I wouldn’t,” Judge said.
The wait has worn on him. Judge said he feels far better than he did earlier in the layoff, which only fueled his push to speed things up. The medical staff wanted caution instead.
“Oh, it’s been the worst,” Judge said. “I want to play. That’s why I’m here.”
A date emerges where the Yankees offered none
Neither Judge nor manager Aaron Boone would put a timeframe on the return. Heyman filled the gap by leaning on history, comparing this injury to a similar one and estimating the runway from there.
“Sometime around September 1st is probably a good guess,” Heyman said. “They wouldn’t make one but that’s my guess.”
He then hedged in the way beat reporters do when a story still has moving parts. The point was not certainty. It was orientation, a rough marker for fans staring at an empty calendar.
“Don’t hold me to it though!” Heyman wrote.
A September 1 return would leave Judge roughly a month of regular season to find his timing before October. It would also mean three full months lost from the middle of the Yankees order.
One doctor’s read holds the timeline
The next real update rests with a specialist. A Texas-based rib expert was reviewing Wednesday’s re-imaging, and as of Friday afternoon had held the results for two days without responding. Judge said the doctor had been busy with surgeries and other work, and that he hoped to hear back within hours or by the next day.
Until that read arrives, the plan stays frozen. Judge has been limited to lower-body conditioning and neck work, with no overhead lifting and no baseball activities. He has mostly walked on an incline treadmill. He briefly rode a stationary bike before the team backed off that, too.
The stakes show up in the standings. Judge last played May 31 in a 13-8 win over the Athletics and has missed 37 games since landing on the injured list June 1. The Yankees reached the break at 54-42, second in the AL East, 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Rays.
New York went just 18-19 without him, ranking near the bottom of the league in runs during the skid. Before the injury, Judge was hitting .248 with a .375 on-base mark, 17 home runs and 38 RBIs, still one of the most productive bats in baseball.
Judge wants to skip the minor league detour
When clearance does come, Judge has made one preference clear. He wants to rejoin the lineup directly, without a minor league rehab assignment eating into his return.
“I hate rehab games, so I’ve got to talk to them about all that,” Judge said. “Why waste at-bats in a rehab game?”
Boone shares his slugger’s belief that the season is not lost, even if he cannot name a return date either. He kept his answer simple, and honest about the one thing still missing.
“I feel good about the fact that he’ll be back, but it’s just a matter of when,” Boone said.
For now, that is where it stands. A captain who feels ready. A team that will not rush him. A doctor who holds the next word. And a single insider’s date, circled lightly in pencil, giving Yankees fans something to count toward while everyone else waits.
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