After roughly 48 hours of nonstop speculation, the New York Yankees have decided if Aaron Judge will play against the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Division Series.
Judge, a three-time MVP with 386 career homers and 871 RBI, was sidelined for the AL Wild Card Series due to a calf injury. Despite not having the future Hall of Famer at their disposal, the Yankees had no trouble defeating the Boston Red Sox.
While speaking to the media this week, Yankees manager Aaron Boone made it sound like Judge could return for the ALDS.
“We’re looking at the days, and so it’s more, is he going to be available at some point in this series potentially as a player,” Boone said. “That’s what we’re kind of weighing, and then seeing where he’s at now these last few days, having taken live BP. We’ll see how [Friday] goes.”
According to Jack Curry of YES Network, however, the Yankees won’t have Judge on their roster for the ALDS.
“The Yankees will explain more about their Judge decision later, but I’m sure the combination of how Judge hasn’t been running a lot and they’re playing on turf at Trop and they had to add a spot or 2 for pitchers were all baked into this choice,” Curry said. “Not surprised.”
Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images.
What does this mean for the Yankees?
While some fans may think Judge’s absence will sink the Yankees, we just saw how dynamic this offense could be when it’s firing on all cylinders.
During the AL Wild Card Series, the Yankees received clutch hitting from Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, Luis Garcia, Spencer Jones, George Lombard, Jazz Chisholm and Austin Wells. Why can’t they do that again against the Rays?
Let’s also not forget the Yankees have a handful of impact pitchers in Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon and Cam Schlittler.
Game 1 between the Yankees and Rays is set for this Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET.
