Aaron Judge told reporters on Saturday that the ligament in his right big toe is town, while manager Aaron Boone would not put any “guarantees” on Judge returning this season.
While Judge insisted that returning in 2023 is absolutely the plan, Tiki says the latest update on his injured toe is a concern, coming from his own athletic experience.
“A toe is not a part of your body that you can get off of and try to stay in shape,” Tiki said. “This is a big problem. I just hope when he does come back and starts to feel better, in his mind, he’s not psychologically trying to protect it. That’s what happens. That’s what happened to me…I jacked up my toe. Deion Sanders, in 1999, jumped on my back and twisted my toe and it probably tore a ligament or something, but I played through it and the swelling, and it calcified, and now I have this big bunion on my toe.
“If I was trying to hit a baseball, that’s gonna change my feel…baseball is a precision sport. This is worrisome.”
Judge’s back foot is imperative to transferring power when swinging in the box, meaning the Yankees will likely want him back to feeling 100 percent before returning to action. After all, they don’t have the best experience when players play through toe injuries, as DJ LeMahieu became a shell of his prime self in the second half of last season when battling a toe injury. So, while the hope is still that Judge plays again in 2023, it likely won’t be for awhile.
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