What initially seemed like a precautionary step has become a legitimate injury concern with Aaron Judge, who was sat Wednesday night to give the oft-injured slugger two straight days off due to “general side soreness.”
But after Wednesday night’ loss, Boone said it was too early to tell whether Judge would be ready to go for Friday’s series opener against the division rival Rays, and talking with Carton & Roberts on Thursday, the Yankee manager said Judge was still a question mark for the first road game of the season.
“[Thursday] will be a day of treatment,” Boone said. “We got to Tampa about 4 a.m. last night, so we have our training room set up at our hotel. A number of guys are going in today and he’s one of those guys. I don’t have anything more at this point. Hopefully back in there tomorrow, but we’ll see what the trainers say and where he is tomorrow.”
Boone said there was no specific instance to point to that caused the soreness, but it could be the quick ramp-up of playing the first week of meaningful games after Judge missed most of the final week of spring training for what was revealed to be an illness.
“Nothing specific,” Boone said. “I think it’s the wear and tear of taking a lot of swings in the first several games, something that came on for him. I want to see where he’s at tonight and tomorrow, and hopefully we get him back in the lineup.”
Judge has had multiple oblique issues in the past, suffering a strain in 2016 and another in 2019, which caused him to miss extended time early in the season, which the Yankees obviously hope hasn’t occurred again, as that would sideline their valuable right fielder for at least several weeks.
“I’m always concerned any time I hold out one of our players, especially Aaron,” Boone said. “I’m hopeful it’s not a big deal. Obviously he was playing very well until yesterday.”
Judge certainly was playing well, going 3-for-5 with a home run in Tuesday’s win, and helped the Yanks to an easy win in Monday’s series opener against the Orioles, when Judge was pulled in the later innings while the Bombers nursed a cozy lead, and Boone said Judge’s removal from the game wasn’t related to the soreness he now feels in his left side.
“No, I pulled him after seven [innings] and I’ll do that typically when we have score leverage, steal a few innings for guys who are out there a lot,” Boone said.
Boone and the Yankees hope Judge can be ready for this weekend, but given his injury history, dealing with soreness just a week into the season has to be a concern. Still, Boone feels it could just be the product of being thrust into a long season, and that Judge will be fine once he settles into the rigors of a 162-game grind, though the team will continue to get him rest and try to avoid another injury-riddled season.
“I wouldn’t say going forward, more in April, trying to be cautious with all our guys in the first month when it’s a little cooler,” Boone said. “They had a pretty good workload in spring training, but they’re playing 2-3 games in a row at 7-8 innings and then all of a sudden, you’re out of the chute playing nine innings every day in the cold. I think it’s important with the build-up – same as with pitchers, trying to build them up to a point where, when we get to May and June, they can roll out there eight, nine or 10 in a row.”
Check out Boone's entire segment with Carton & Roberts below!
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