Is Aaron Judge's elbow injury a big problem for the Yankees?

Yahoo

5 days ago

Yahoo Sports senior MLB analysts Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman react as New York's slugger is placed on injured reserve with an elbow injury and decide how the team might use him the rest of the season. Hear the full conversation on the 'Baseball Bar-B-Cast' podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
View more
Video Transcript
The drama began Saturday morning when Yankee reporters strolled into the clubhouse, and they noticed who was missing from the light out, Aaron Judge.
And given that the Yankees had just had an off day, and they were facing left-hander Raider Suarez, it stood to reason that something was amiss, something was wrong.
And that turned out to be the case during pregame, when Aaron Boone said to the world, uh, Aaron is dealing with some discomfort in his elbow.
The whole reason we even got to this point is because Aaron Judge couldn't throw.
And even though Aaron Judge said he felt this for the first time during the series in Toronto, he was kind of gutting it out until he couldn't, until he realized if I need to make a play, I cannot right now.
And even at that point, it sounds like he was still arguing, hey, I'm Aaron Judge.
Don't you want me in the lineup?
Can I just DH and just play through this?
They were like, yes, but also there's this other big guy that hits the ball really hard.
And we really don't want him to play in the outfield.
But the point is, it sounds like they would prefer because of what you just described that there is a path to rest and getting him back to throwing a baseball in this somewhat near future, that they're going with this path, which is still not a sure thing, but it is at least a first step.
I would describe this as good bad news, right?
Aaron Judge will continue to hit for the rest of the season, right?
Like that, that is a that is a win.
I think this is just the Yankees deciding to play this safe for now.
There is no reason to push it.
At this point, better or worse, the division feels kind of out of reach.
Yeah, the Yankees could come back, sure, but it's about making sure the Judge is able to throw, giving themselves the best chance at Judge being able to throw during the postseason.
That's kind of where we're at now, and I think giving him 10 days to just kind of chill makes a lot of sense.
Close