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The New York Yankees made some blockbuster acquisitions ahead of the trade deadline, but there’s really only one player who can carry them deep into the playoffs.
Even after general manager Brian Cashman landed the likes of Camilo Doval from the San Francisco Giants and David Bednar from the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Yankees still won’t have much chance to return to first place in the division until franchise slugger Aaron Judge comes back from injury.
“By acquiring seven players in the span of three days, Cashman turned a good team into a more dangerous one,” as Bob Klapisch put it for NJ.com. “Still, there’s a missing piece that Cashman couldn’t address this week: Aaron Judge’s health.”
In the midst of a historically productive season at the plate, Judge went down with an elbow ailment and was placed on the injured list. And now there are a lot of moving parts surrounding his return. If he were to wait to recover completely and return to the outfield, he would likely need more than a 10-day stay on the IL. Instead, speaking with Judge, Klapisch noted that he’s eager to return even if it’s just in a designated hitter capacity and even if it means playing through discomfort.
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“I’m told by orthopedists it could take up to a month for the elbow to be 100 percent again,” Klapisch wrote. “Naturally, Judge doesn’t want to wait that long. In fact, the Yankees were lucky he agreed to spend even 10 days on the sidelines. Judge is already talking about returning to the lineup as a DH in (Texas) on Tuesday.”
That aggressive return is surprising, though, as it would mean Judge is more focused on a return to the lineup that fully recovering from the issue.
“I walked away convinced that Judge knows he’s not going to be 100 percent until the off-season,” Klapisch added. “He’s only on his first PRP jab. Judge has made peace with the discomfort, the same way Giancarlo Stanton co-exists with tennis elbow in both arms.”
Hosting two sluggers who are unable to contribute on defense would be tough for the Yankees, but the team is surely desperate to get Judge back into the batting order. After an aggressive series of moves before the deadline, it seems the team is counting on it.
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