The Yankees are preparing for a Wild Card Series without Aaron Judge. Judge is preparing for a Wild Card Series with himself in it. Somebody is going to be wrong.
New York’s captain strained his right calf on September 18, exited that game early, and has been shut down from baseball activities since. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection on Monday. Aaron Boone has called the strain “moderate,” which in manager language sits somewhere between inconvenient and season-altering.
Boone Is Not Pretending
Asked whether Judge would be on the Wild Card roster, the Yankees manager did not hedge. “We’re planning on him not being a part of that,” Boone said.
That is unusually blunt for a team in the middle of a playoff push, and it tells you the medical staff is not seeing what they want to see. Calf strains are notorious for reinjury, particularly in players who weigh 280 pounds and generate force the way Judge does.
Judge Is Not Ruling Himself Out
The three-time MVP offered his own read, and it was far less definitive than his manager’s. “I’ve got no idea” whether he’ll be on the roster, Judge said, adding that his plan is to try to get his body ready so he is available.
That gap between what the organization expects and what the player intends is where every October injury drama lives. Judge has never been the type to rule himself out of anything.
The Bigger Problem Nobody Is Talking About
The calf is not the whole story. This was Judge’s seventh game back from a fractured rib that had sidelined him since June, and those seven games went badly: 4-for-23, a .174 average, no rhythm at all.
He has appeared in 66 of New York’s 155 games this season. That is not a slump. That is a season that never happened.
So even in the version where Judge grits his way onto the roster, the Yankees would be running out a hitter who has faced live pitching seven times since June and is running on a calf that required a PRP injection nine days earlier.
Why the Yankees Are in This Spot at All
New York clinched a postseason berth but watched Tampa Bay clinch the AL East at Yankee Stadium on September 22, which locked the Yankees into the Wild Card round rather than a bye. A best-of-three against Boston is the likely assignment.
That is a brutal draw for a team missing its best player. Three games leaves no room to absorb a cold night from the lineup, and the Red Sox have already shown they can win in the Bronx.
The Call the Yankees Have to Make
Carrying a compromised Judge costs New York a roster spot and a defensive position. Leaving him off costs them the most feared bat in the sport, even at 70 percent.
Boone has essentially announced his answer. The only question left is whether Judge accepts it, and anyone who has watched him play the last four years knows how he tends to answer questions like that.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.