NEW YORK — For two months, the Yankees have answered the same question every afternoon. When is help coming? The replies came in shrugs and hedges, a rehab vocabulary of asymptomatic checkpoints and moving targets. This week, the tone in the Bronx shifted.
A quiet pitching return may matter most for the Yankees
The player whose progress carries outsized weight is right-hander Clarke Schmidt. He is working back from Tommy John surgery performed in July 2025, and his timeline took on new importance at the trade deadline. General manager Brian Cashman declined to add a reliever in part because he believed reinforcements were coming from inside the organization. Schmidt is one of those reinforcements.
There was a scare. Schmidt cut short a live batting practice session Tuesday, throwing two simulated innings instead of the scheduled three after feeling forearm cramping. For a pitcher rebuilding an elbow, any forearm signal draws immediate attention. The Yankees had him checked, and the news came back clean.
Manager Aaron Boone delivered the update before first pitch Wednesday, framing the cramping as a minor hiccup rather than a setback.
“Clarke we feel like is probably good to go,” Boone said. “He got a lot of treatment [Tuesday]. The doc didn’t seem overly concerned.”
Boone laid out the next steps, a careful build that keeps Schmidt on track for a possible late-season return.
“We’re expecting him to play catch [Thursday], then hopefully do his side at some point this weekend and roll through it,” Boone said. “We’ve got to get him there, but I feel like we got encouraging news on it.”
Bellinger back on the field as Yankees bats stir
The most visible progress belonged to Cody Bellinger. The All-Star has been out since July 26 with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, and Wednesday he took on-field batting practice at Yankee Stadium for the first time since the injury. It was his first real baseball work outside the cage, a checkpoint that moves the process out of the training room.
Bellinger called the session a clear marker, even as he stopped short of naming a return date.
“I feel really good, but I’m not really sure where that puts me,” Bellinger said. “I just know I’m trending in the right direction. Hitting’s no problem. I hit on the field [Wednesday], so that’s good. Running in a straight line, I’m feeling pretty good. [Wednesday] was more agility, side by side. Nothing’s at full speed yet, but every day is feeling better for sure.”
Bellinger was hitting .259 with 11 home runs, 53 RBIs and a .770 OPS in 102 games before the strain. His original timeline ran four to six weeks, which points to late August or September, though he is pushing to beat it. His glove and left-handed bat have been missed across a Yankees outfield under pressure all year.
Judge and Stanton edge closer for the Yankees
The biggest name remains Aaron Judge. The reigning American League MVP has missed 56 games with a stress fracture in his right rib, and this week the Yankees cleared him for outdoor running and upper-body resistance work. He is not yet hitting or throwing. Another round of imaging is expected in about two weeks, and Judge hopes a clean scan will open the door to swinging a bat.
Boone described the clearance as the start of a real progression after a long stall.
“Now he’s able to start running and introduce things that we’ve got to build up to eventually get to where you’re hitting and throwing and those kind of things,” Boone said. “It’s important part of his progression to get back with us.”
Giancarlo Stanton is also inching forward. The designated hitter has been sidelined since late April by a right calf strain, then a second calf injury that wiped out his timeline. He took swings in live batting practice against Carlos Rodón on Aug. 3, then jogged in the outfield. He has not been cleared to run the bases, so the Yankees still have no firm date for him, though an August return remains the hope.
Boone offered a characteristically dry read on the slugger’s hitting work.
“G’s been hitting a ton already,” Boone said, “but it’s good to see him outdoors and moving.”
Rodón lines up a rehab start as the Yankees wait
The fifth name offers the clearest date. Left-hander Carlos Rodón, out since early July with elbow inflammation, threw a 40-pitch live batting practice Aug. 3 without issue. His next step is a rehab start Saturday with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the final stage before a return to the rotation.
The timing matters because the Yankees have leaned on their arms to survive. The bullpen has posted the majors’ best ERA over the past 55 games, and that group has masked an offense that has gone cold since the All-Star break. Getting Rodón and Schmidt back would deepen a staff that Cashman chose not to reinforce from outside.
The offense, meanwhile, needs its injured stars. The Yankees fell to 64-51 with Wednesday’s loss, second in the AL East and trailing the first-place Tampa Bay Rays by four games, while holding a wild-card position. They went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position that night, a snapshot of why the returns cannot come soon enough.
For now, the Yankees have movement without dates. Judge is running, Bellinger is hitting on the field, Stanton is taking live swings, Schmidt is cleared to build back up, and Rodón is headed for a rehab mound. None has a locked return, but for the first time in months, the entire Yankees injured list is trending the same way. The next few weeks will decide whether it arrives in time.
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