Aaron Judge Was Left Off the Yankees’ ALDS Roster, and New York Got One-Hit Without Him

The New York Yankees played a Division Series game without Aaron Judge on the roster. They were held to one hit.

Those two facts are going to sit next to each other for the rest of this series.

The injury

Judge, 34, has a moderate strain of the soleus muscle in his right calf, suffered on September 16 at Target Field against the Twins. He received a platelet-poor plasma injection in late September. That category of calf injury typically needs three weeks or more.

The math did not work. New York left him off the ALDS roster entirely rather than carry him as a limited bat.

Aaron Boone explained the thinking, and it is more defensible than it looks.

“I just feel like he’s not quite ready to do it,” Boone said. “For us to potentially have a version of Aaron back, I feel like he needs this week to continue to hit, continue to ramp up the running and moving.”

He also addressed the obvious alternative. “If we kept him on in the pinch-hitting role, I feel like that would have stripped away the ability to have some really good days.”

Judge is eligible to be added for the ALCS if the Yankees advance.

Judge wants back in

He is not pretending to be at peace with it.

“Saturday is a long ways away,” Judge said. “I’m doing everything I can to prepare myself to be ready to go.”

A three-time AL MVP saying that about a game he was not on the roster for is about as close to public frustration as he gets.

His season was already strange

Judge played only 66 games in 2026 and hit .241 with a .360 on-base percentage and a .511 slugging mark, good for an .871 OPS with 18 home runs.

That batting average is startling for him. The on-base number is not, because pitchers still refuse to challenge him. He was productive in a diminished, interrupted way, and then the calf took the end of his season.

The replacement plan is thin

Giancarlo Stanton made his first appearance since late April as a ninth-inning pinch-hitter in Game 1 and struck out. He had been out with a calf strain, then strained the other calf while rehabbing late in the regular season.

Boone saw something he liked anyway. “I watched that at-bat and go, ‘Oo, I like where he’s at,'” he said. “He’ll continue to be a threat for us the rest of the series.”

That is a manager making the best of a designated hitter who has played a handful of games since spring.

Game 1 was the proof

Drew Rasmussen threw eight innings of one-hit ball with 10 strikeouts. Jonathan Aranda homered off Gerrit Cole in the third and Tampa Bay won 1-0.

A lineup missing its best hitter got shut down by the better starting pitcher, which is roughly what you would expect.

Our take

Boone made the correct call and it may cost him the series anyway. Carrying Judge as a one-at-bat-per-night option would have burned a roster spot and risked re-injuring a calf that needs rest, all for marginal value in a best-of-five.

The problem is not the decision. The problem is that New York built a roster where the answer to losing Judge is a designated hitter who has barely played since April.

The Yankees now have to win a series to get their MVP back. They need to find a second hit first.