The New York Yankees are safely holding onto the top American League Wild Card spot while continuing to chase the Tampa Bay Rays for the American League East division title.
The club is nearly back at full strength with the return on Tuesday of three-time MVP and right fielder Aaron Judge, who missed 99 days with a right rib stress fracture.
As revealed earlier this week, the Yankees planned on starting Judge back with the big league team instead of shipping him on a minor league rehab assignment. In doing so, the plan was to slowly shift Judge in and out of games, including removing him in late innings.
Manager Aaron Boone did just that on Tuesday, removing the 34-year-old from the game in the seventh inning of an eventually 5-3 win.
This sparked a rare, blunt reaction from the Yankees’ captain, stating he was “not happy” when referring to his removal.
Boone responded to the statement from Judge on Wednesday, explaining that “It’s my job to be smart here, especially these first several games here.”
It makes sense for Boone to be wary with the return of a star of Judge’s caliber, as he did not take a single in-game at-bat in nearly three months before Tuesday. Judge went 0-3 with two strikeouts in his return.
However, the situation may be different when looking at Judge. Especially since the Yankees offense in his absence was one of the worst units in baseball.
In his 60 games played this season, Judge is slashing .244/.370/.525, good for a .896 OPS, with 17 home runs and 38 RBI. The captain looks to return to his north of 1.000 OPS form as the team rolls into October.
Judge remains in the lineup on Wednesday, batting third and playing right field.
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