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NEW YORK — Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge opted to go for the glass half-full approach to this week’s re-imaging results on his fractured right rib.
“It’s definitely a positive sign that we’re seeing some healing,” the three-time MVP said Friday.
Now for the bad news:
His rib isn’t “fully healed,” so Judge still hasn’t received medical clearance to resume baseball activities.
“I think it’s more once we see it kind of healing all the way through,” Judge added. “Part of its healing. The other part of it is still trying to bridge together.”
Just back from the All-Star break, the Yankees had played 96 games with 66 remaining heading into a weekend series at Yankee Stadium against the two-time reigning World Series champion Dodgers.
Judge said that he hasn’t been given a best-case timeframe to come off the injured list, but he still is sure in his mind that it will be before the regular season ends in late September.
“Yeah, definitely,” he said. “I don’t see why I wouldn’t.”
Manager Aaron Boone feels the same, saying “I feel good about the fact that he’ll be back, but it’s just a matter of when.”
The Yankees are expecting more clarity on Judge’s rib when a Texas-based rib expert reads results from Wednesday’s re-imaging.
As of Friday afternoon, the doctor had the results for two days but hadn’t yet provided feedback. According to Judge, the doctor was ‘busy … doing surgeries … doing stuff. So hopefully I hear back in the next couple hours or tomorrow. I’d love an answer."
Judge has been limited to lower body conditioning during his absence.
“A lot of lower-body work, neck exercises, just anything to kind of keep the body moving, but also take some stress off the upper body,” he said. “So no heavy lifting upper body, nothing overhead, no baseball activities. I’m waiting, to do that.”
He still feels some discomfort in his rib area, but he’s noticed a lot of improvement over the last six weeks.
“It’s feeling better,” he said. “It was a couple weeks that were tough. I really couldn’t do a lot, but now we’re feeling 10 times better.”
Judge has been pushing to get the ball rolling toward returning.
“That was my big complaint,” he said. “If I’m feeling better, how about we start moving? But I think they just don’t want to start adding baseball activities and other stuff, and all of a sudden we have a setback and it pushes everything back.
“So they want to just be sure it’s healing up the right way, so we can get back as soon as we can.”
As of Friday, Judge has missed 37 games since going on the injured list on June 1. The Yankees made it to the break with a 54-42 record, second in the AL East and four games behind the first-place Rays, but they were just 18-19 without Judge.
“Oh, it’s been the worst,” Judge said. “I want to play. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I get paid, to play big games for the Yankees, and especially with the team we have, how special it is, how special this group is.
“I want to be a part of everything, so it’s been tough. But we’ve got a lot of great guys in this clubhouse that’ve been holding their own and kind of carrying the weight of this team. … (All-Star) Ben Rice has been fun to watch, but it’s been tough sitting on the sidelines.”
When Judge does get clearance to resume baseball activities, he’s hoping he can speed up his return by avoiding a rehab assignment in the minor leagues.
“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? So we’ll see. I’m not too sure about that.”
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