NEW YORK — For more than two months, the Yankees have answered the same question about Aaron Judge with the same careful non-answer. On Sunday, the man who runs the front office finally offered something firmer, and the way he framed it mattered as much as the news itself.
Judge has been out since May 31 with a stress fracture in his right rib. Last week, the Yankees cleared him for light exercise, including outdoor running and upper-body resistance training, after he underwent imaging on Aug. 4. The rib is not completely healed, and Judge has not swung a bat since going down, but the clearance marks the first step toward baseball activities.
Cashman’s engine metaphor sends a clear message
Speaking on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM, Cashman said Judge has been cleared to begin light activities and conditioning work now that his injured rib has healed enough to allow it. It is the first real forward step in a recovery that had been defined by waiting, and it moves Judge out of a holding pattern and into an active rehab.
Cashman said both Judge and the team’s medical staff believe he would return this season. There is no exact date, and there will not be one for a while, but the direction has finally changed.
The most revealing part of the update was not the clearance. It was how Cashman described what comes next, using a mechanical image to explain why the Yankees will not push.
“He’s now been cleared to start doing light activities and get into that conditioning mode,” Cashman said. “So hopefully we’re able to get to the finish line at some point with him, and he obviously believes he’s going to be back. I think the doctors believe he’ll be back for us. We just want to make sure that getting him back in one condition cleared is what we want, but we need the whole engine firing on all cylinders. We don’t need him to blow a tire elsewhere because of the downtime and the lack of conditioning. So he’s got to be properly tuned up, so we can get the player we expect when he’s ready to go.”
The message was unmistakable. After nearly two months of inactivity, the Yankees are wary that rushing Judge into games could invite a secondary injury, a hamstring or an oblique strained by a body that has not been game-ready in weeks. The priority is a fully conditioned player, not a fast one.
It is a stance rooted in caution, and in the value of the asset. Judge is not merely an All-Star. He is the engine of the Yankees offense, and the front office would rather have him at full strength in September and October than at half strength in mid-August.
Rodon clears his first rehab start for the Yankees
The rotation news came from Scranton. Carlos Rodon, on the injured list since June 30 with left elbow inflammation, made his first minor league rehab start Saturday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against Rochester. He threw 48 pitches, 29 for strikes, over 2 2/3 innings, allowing three runs and three hits with two walks and four strikeouts, and topped out at 93.8 mph.
The line was uneven, but Rodon made clear the results were not the point. What mattered was how the elbow responded, and on that front he came away encouraged.
“It feels good; it feels normal,” Rodon said. “I feel like it’s just to get the innings count up, get the pitches up, and I’ll be ready when I’m ready.”
Manager Aaron Boone said Rodon will likely make one more rehab start, then return to the rotation before he is fully stretched out, working in a piggyback role as he builds stamina. It is the same blueprint the Yankees used with Max Fried, and it figures to push either Ryan Weathers or Will Warren into the bullpen.
“I think we’ll piggyback him at some point,” Boone said. “It’s just, do we have him do one more and then do the piggyback at whatever pitch count he’s at? That’s the most likely right now.”
Rodon, 33, missed the season’s first two months after offseason surgery to remove loose bodies and shave a bone spur in the same elbow. In nine starts, he is 4-2 with a 3.30 ERA, and his return would deepen a staff that has carried the Yankees all year.
Schmidt’s forearm scare passes for the Yankees
The third update was the one that had briefly worried the Yankees. Clarke Schmidt, working back from Tommy John surgery in July 2025, cut short a live batting practice session on Aug. 4 after experiencing right forearm cramping, throwing two innings instead of the planned three. For a pitcher rebuilding an elbow, any forearm signal draws immediate concern.
The news since has been reassuring. Boone said Schmidt was checked and is essentially fine, and the right-hander has resumed playing catch. He is expected to throw from a mound within the next several days, which would restart the final stretch of his rehab.
“Clarke we feel like is probably good to go,” Boone said earlier in the week. “He got a lot of treatment. The doc didn’t seem overly concerned.”
Schmidt, who re-signed on a one-year deal last offseason, has not pitched in the majors this season while rehabbing. A healthy return, likely out of the bullpen, would give the Yankees another arm for the stretch run. His timeline remains fluid, tied to how his forearm responds once he is back on a mound.
A cautious plan meets a shrinking window
A team chasing a division title might be tempted to accelerate its biggest bat’s return. Instead, the Yankees are signaling the opposite, that they will bring Judge back only when he is fully built up, even if that means a few more weeks of waiting.
The bet is on the bigger picture. A healthy Judge in the postseason is worth more than a compromised Judge in August, and the Yankees are managing his return with October in mind. The recovery is finally moving. The Yankees just have no intention of rushing it. They host the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday, still waiting on their captain, but for the first time in months, waiting with a reason for hope.
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