DETROIT — The Yankees are waiting on two sets of medical images and getting few answers from either. One concerns the reigning AL MVP. The other concerns the catcher pressed into duty in his absence.
Aaron Judge remains sidelined with a stress fracture in his right first rib, an injury with so little baseball precedent that even veteran insiders cannot project a return. Ali Sanchez, meanwhile, left Monday’s 5-3 loss to the Tigers after a pitch struck his right wrist, and he now awaits a CT scan.
Together, the two situations leave the Yankees short-handed and uncertain at the worst time. New York has lost four of five and continues to navigate a lineup built around a player who has no timetable to come back.
The bigger alarm centers on Judge, where the lack of information has started to worry people who cover the team closely. The smaller, fresher concern is Sanchez, whose negative X-ray offered only partial relief.
Insider says Judge’s timeline is a mystery
Longtime MLB insider Joel Sherman captured the unease on the Pinstripe Post podcast. He explained that the rib injury is so unusual for a baseball player that the normal recovery benchmarks simply do not apply.
“I know how long it takes to heal from a hamstring, right? I know how long it takes to get back from Tommy John,” Sherman said. “I know how long the hammate bone surgery is going to take. I have no clue about this and Judge have shut down on his injury.”
Sherman added that even his own conversations with Judge have produced little clarity. He described the captain as guarded to the point that projecting any return date has become guesswork.
“You don’t get information on it. He’s been very cryptic about it ever since that moment,” Sherman said. “It’s a rare injury for a baseball player and I think it’s important within the context of this season when he comes back, how he comes back is important.”
Yankees refuse to set a target date
The front office has matched that caution. Judge revealed earlier this month that he had played through discomfort in the rib area for nearly six weeks before the team shut him down, and the Yankees said he would be re-imaged in four to six weeks before any reassessment.
Manager Aaron Boone has declined to attach a timeline, wary of setting an expectation the injury may not meet. He framed the approach as a direct response to the medical uncertainty.
“Just the nature of the injury,” Boone said. “And hearing the doctors talk. We just haven’t put a timeline on it because we don’t want to do that and miss the target or make the target or, you know, anything like that. I think there’s pretty strong confidence that he’ll be back and fully healthy.”
That confidence, paired with the absence of a date, captures the Yankees’ bind. They believe Judge returns this season. They cannot say when, or how close to full strength he will be when he does.
The wait carries real weight for a lineup that has leaned on a patchwork outfield in his place. Judge anchors the order as the reigning AL MVP, and the offense has gone cold during the recent slide, scoring sparingly while dropping four of five. Every extra week without a timeline complicates how the front office plans for the trade deadline and the postseason race.
Sanchez exits as catching depth thins
The newer worry arrived Monday night in Detroit. Sanchez was hit on the right wrist by a Drew Anderson fastball with two outs in the seventh inning, and the pain was immediate enough to remove him on the spot.
Postgame X-rays came back negative, but the Yankees sent him for a CT scan to get a complete look. Boone described the moment as alarming before turning hopeful about the follow-up imaging.
“Initially, he was in a ton of pain,” Boone said. “Enough to take him out right away. Hopefully, we get clean on the CT, and it is just a day-to-day thing.”
Boone underscored just how much the catcher was hurting before he left the game.
“He was in some pretty good pain there,” Boone said.
The timing stings because the Yankees had just thinned their catching depth. Sanchez, who had been productive since his June 7 call-up at 6-for-19 with two doubles and three RBI, exited after going 1-for-2 with an RBI double.
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