Aaron Judge was given Wednesday off in the hopes that two straight days of rest would put him in position to play in Friday’s series opener against the Rays, but those two days weren’t enough.
Judge, dealing with “general side soreness,” is not in the Yankee lineup for the first road game of the season, with Aaron Boone leaving the slugging right fielder out as a precaution.
“He is not in the lineup,” Boone told reporters prior to Friday’s divisional clash with Tampa Bay. “Just felt like I wanted to at least wait another day. He had a good day of treatment late afternoon into the evening yesterday, same this morning.”
Boone said Judge hit in the cage on Friday, and reported no issues, but still felt he wanted to play it safe and give him another day before reassessing on Saturday, when the Yanks also have an afternoon game.
“That went well,” Boone said of Judge’s cage work. “Again, I just felt like it was something I at least wanted to give another day and we’ll see where we’re at in 24 hours.”
Judge could be being worked back slowly due to two oblique injuries that he has suffered in the past, including in 2019 when he missed extended time, but Boone still stressed that Judge is feeling better, and his absence from Friday’s lineup is out of extreme caution, and he didn’t rule out Judge as a potential pinch hitting option for Friday.
“Just wanted to play the long game and not force anything back in just to be safe at this point right now,” Boone said. “We’ll see where we’re at in 24 hours.”
The Yanks will certainly miss Judge, who hold an OPS over 1.000 and went 3-for-5 with a home run on Tuesday night, his last game played.
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