With Aaron Judge back in the lineup, Aaron Boone hopes he will continue to be able to pencil the slugger in as a starter, but he’ll proceed with caution with his prolific but oft-injured slugger.
Judge, who had been out since Wednesday with what Boone described as “general side soreness” in his left side, raised concerns with his absence given his injury history and previous oblique strains, but he appears to have avoided another IL stint and took the field with the starters on Saturday.
“It’s always good to write his name in there,” Boone said before Saturday’s game. “Just trying to be cautious here with him early, not wanting this to be something that does become an issue. Hopefully we’re able to get past that and through that in the days ahead.”
While many feared the worst with Judge, who is invaluable to the lineup but has had difficulty staying on the field throughout his career, Boone told reporters on Saturday that keeping Judge out for two straight games was a means of playing it safe this early in the year.
“I think he wanted to play [Friday],” Boone said. “I wanted him to at least move around and get some swings in the cage. I just wanted to hold him out one more day coming off the off day.”
If this had been October, Boone doesn’t think Judge would have been kept out.
“Yes, I would say if they were playoff games, he probably would be in the lineup,” Boone said.
Still, while Judge appears to have avoid injury, Boone and the training staff will keep an eye on how Judge rebounds after playing Saturday and the games ahead. He went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts in his first game back.
“I think we’ll be closely monitoring him, but I would say that with hopefully all our guys throughout the year…as best we can, we try to stay on top of those things,” Boone said. “We’ll certainly monitor how he’s doing and how he’s feeling.”
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