Aaron Boone joined Evan and Tiki on Tuesday, and made it clear that the bulk of Aaron Judge’s playing time will be out in center field, at least while Jasson Dominguez recovers from Tommy John surgery.
“I see him playing a lot of center field to start,” Boone said. “Assuming we have good health…I do think Aaron, he’s preparing and is excited to play center field.
“I’ll use the DH with him too. In a perfect world, when you’re healthy, once or twice a week. That gets Grisham in there too, get Giancarlo a day off…right now, [Judge] is preparing to play center field. I could slide him over to right at any time, and you could even see some left field in there. But initially, the bulk, I see him playing in center field.”
Asked out a potential injury concern with Judge logging heavy time in center as opposed to the much more confined right field, Boone noted Judge playing 78 games in center two seasons ago, when he mashed 62 home runs and was healthy mainly the entire season.
“Two years ago, when he played the bulk of the 2022 season…it was also one of his most healthy seasons,” Boone said. “I do like to get him more DH as a result of him moving around more, technically, but I’m not putting him at running back. It’s center field. He’s had just as much injury in right field, whether it’s running into the wall or whatever.”
As for the corner outfielders, Boone sees Alex Verdugo taking the bulk of the reps in left field.
“My lean right now would be to have Verdugo in left and Soto in right,” Boone said. “With our large left field, Verdugo has cemented himself as an elite defensive corner outfielder.”