CC Sabathia believes Aaron Judge injury blow won’t derail Yankees season

NEW YORK — The news Yankees fans dreaded finally arrived. Aaron Judge will be sidelined for nearly two months with a fractured rib, ripping the reigning MVP out of the heart of the lineup. Panic spread quickly through the fan base. Then a familiar voice stepped in to calm it down, and his confidence came backed by more than just nostalgia.

A Yankees legend is not buying the doom. He sees a team built to survive this, and a deeper look at the roster suggests he may be right.

A legend keeps the faith

Former Yankees ace and franchise icon CC Sabathia wasted no time sharing his view once Judge’s diagnosis became public. The big lefty, who anchored New York rotations for over a decade, framed the absence as a defining moment rather than a death blow.

“We’re gonna learn a lot about this Yankees team in the next month. I got full faith,” Sabathia wrote on his official account on X.

The message landed with weight because of who sent it. Sabathia knows what it takes to win in the Bronx and what it feels like to push through adversity over a long season. His belief gave anxious fans a reason to exhale, even as the team prepared for life without its best hitter.

The numbers behind the optimism

Here is where Sabathia’s faith finds real support. The Yankees are not the fragile group that collapsed the last time Judge went down for an extended stretch. The offensive depth tells the story.

Strip away every Judge plate appearance this season, and the Yankees still post a 109 wRC+ and a .744 OPS, according to FanGraphs. That mark would rank as the fourth-best offense in the majors. With Judge, the Yankees sit second only to the Dodgers. The drop-off exists, but it is far from catastrophic.

The contrast with 2023 is stark. When Judge broke his right big toe at Dodger Stadium that year, it effectively sank the Yankees season. Of their regular players that year, only Gleyber Torres and DJ LeMahieu posted a league-average or better wRC+. This year, the Yankees have five such players, and that does not even count key contributors Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario.

Yankees with and without Judge year by year

Ben Rice leads a deeper supporting cast

The biggest reason for hope is the breakout of Ben Rice. In just his second full season, Rice has become one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball. He finished Thursday with a 1.031 OPS, the second-highest mark in the majors, a genuinely Judge-like number.

Manager Aaron Boone pushed back on the idea that Rice now has to shoulder some new, heavier burden. He believes the young slugger is already operating at an elite level.

“I don’t think he’s stepping into anything,” Boone said of Rice. “Nothing changes. He’s been one of the best players in the league. There’s not a requirement to now do more. It’s not a, he’s gotta go to another level. I don’t know where you go.”

Rice is not alone. Cody Bellinger is enjoying his best season since his 2019 NL MVP campaign and leads the team in WAR. Goldschmidt, who opened the year as Rice’s backup, has been in the middle of a renaissance. Trent Grisham is starting to see results after a stretch of brutal luck. The Yankees have weapons beyond their captain.

A division that gives the Yankees cover

Another factor works in the Yankees favor, and it has nothing to do with their own roster. The American League simply is not very deep this season. That cushion matters when a team loses a player of Judge’s caliber.

Former MLB catcher and analyst AJ Pierzynski pointed directly to that reality. He argued the soft state of the league buys New York time to absorb the blow.

“The Yankees are in a good spot because the AL is not very good. You have the Rays and them, and then the rest of the AL is kind of bad. The Mariners are hot now, but they still have room to play with here,” Pierzynski said, per Foul Territory.

The standings support the point. Only six AL teams carry an above-average wRC+ this year, compared to nine in 2023. The Yankees entered Friday at 37-25, just a half-game behind the Rays atop the AL East. Even a diminished offense can stay in the race in a top-heavy league.

Reinforcements and the players who must rise

Help is also on the way. Jasson Dominguez was set to begin a rehab assignment Friday, and his time in the minors could be brief. He has shown he can be an above-average left-handed bat and has made progress from the right side. Giancarlo Stanton is further out, recovering from a calf strain, with a best-case return around June 16 against the White Sox.

Still, the Yankees will need more from players who have struggled. Without Judge atop the order, a brighter spotlight now falls on Austin Wells, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Ryan McMahon and Anthony Volpe. Chisholm acknowledged the challenge while refusing to lean on it as a crutch.

“It kind of sucks not having a three-time MVP in your lineup,” Chisholm said after Thursday’s 2-1 win over the Guardians. “But at the same time, we all know we can’t use it as an excuse. We’re all baseball players and we got to go out there and win a game.”

The first real test comes immediately, with three quality Boston Red Sox pitchers on tap this weekend and no Judge to mask any flaws. McMahon summed up the mindset shared across the clubhouse, one that echoes Sabathia’s faith.

“You’re always going to miss an Aaron Judge,” McMahon said. “But it’s on us. We got to hold it down.”

Nobody inside or outside the organization pretends the Yankees are better without Judge. They are not replacing a three-time MVP. But between a top-five offense even without him, a soft AL, reinforcements returning, and a legend’s vote of confidence, the Yankees have real reason to believe this blow will not break their season.

What do you think? Leave your comment below.