Yankees' Aaron Judge goes on IL with flexor strain in elbow, but UCL is OK

The Yankees avoided what could have been a potential disaster on Saturday when the pain in Aaron Judge’s right elbow was diagnosed as a strained flexor tendon and not their biggest fear: a UCL tear, the kind of injury most often associated with pitchers needing Tommy John surgery.

The situation is not a best-case scenario, either. The two-time American League Most Valuable Player will go on the 10-day injured list.

Manager Aaron Boone said Judge had an MRI exam before being diagnosed and already had received a platelet-rich plasma injection in the elbow.

Judge will not do baseball activities for a few days and will begin swinging a bat after that. He will not throw a baseball for 10 days to two weeks. When he returns from the IL, it will be as a designated hitter until he again is fit to make throws from the outfield.

“You never want to go in the tube,” Judge said of the MRI after the Yankees’ 9-4 loss to Philadelphia at the Stadium, the first game he has missed all season. “It’s never fun [and] you don’t know what’s going to show up  . . . but I’m glad we got a better answer than it could have been.”

Giancarlo Stanton, sidelined with soreness in both elbows, has been the team’s full-time DH since he returned from the IL for the 71st game of the season. Boone said it is possible — and Stanton said probable — that he will play the outfield when Judge returns.

“Whatever is going to [give] us the best opportunity to win for all circumstances, so I believe that’s going to be for me to be in the outfield,” Stanton said. “I'll be working out there this coming week and be ready when needed.”

Stanton last played the outfield on Sept. 14, 2023. He said, “There will be a little rust to knock out this week . . . It’ll be good to be back out there and . . . that's best for the team, so anything I can do.”

Asked about his comfort going back to the outfield, he replied, “It’s not going to be like I’ve never been out there before.”

Judge said he hadn't  had any previous elbow injuries, so there was some concern about the pain he felt after attempting to throw out Davis Schneider at the plate on George Springer's single to rightfield in the sixth inning of  Tuesday’s win over the Blue Jays in Toronto.  Boone said before Saturday's game,  “It zinged him — it hurt.”

In the seventh inning of that game, Judge clearly grimaced after catching Alejandro Kirk's drive into the rightfield corner and returning the ball to the infield. He did not come out of the game.

Judge served as the DH in a loss to the Blue Jays the following night and hoped that the situation would improve with the team off on Thursday. He was back in rightfield for Friday’s loss to the Phillies at the Stadium but was hampered making throws.

“I couldn’t throw — that kind of sums it up,” Judge said. “I wanted to be out there for the team, be out there and do my thing, [but] after a couple days of it not really getting better, we decided it was probably best to get it checked out.”

Judge is having another spectacular season that has him in contention for another MVP award. He is batting .342 with 37 home runs and 85 RBIs.

He was resistant about going on the IL but added, “I think it just kind of came down to a point where [if] I’ve got to make a play for the team and not be able to do [that, it] kind of hurts.”

Losing Judge at any time is a bad prospect. That’s especially true in this moment when the Yankees have lost 23 of their last 37 games.

“It’s never a relief knowing he’s going to be out . . . but for what it is, I guess you could say ‘best case,’ ” Stanton said. “Everyone’s going to have to step up and be able to weather the storm until he’s back.''

“[It’s] Aaron Judge, so, you know, it's a big deal,” Boone said. “But we have a lot of really good players around him. We have three regular outfielders there that have played regularly that need to be productive. And offensively, I still think we're good and in a good spot and we'll be able to score runs at a healthy clip . . . Even with [Judge] down for a period of time, we got it.”

He added, “We’ve got to improve right now on the run prevention front. Hopefully we start doing that sooner rather than later.”

The Yankees went with a starting outfield on Saturday, from left to right, of Jasson Dominguez, Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger. It’s a strong group, but it  no longer has Judge’s strong arm to prevent runners from taking an extra base.

If Stanton is the option to join the outfield when Judge begins to DH, the offense will improve but the defense is likely to suffer. How long it will take Judge to be fit enough to make throws from the outfield is an unknown.

“It’s probably going to be 10 days to two weeks no throwing at all and then you’re kind of working from there,” Judge said. “It could be on that 15th day playing catch and this feels like brand-new and normal . . . They really haven’t set up a timeline yet for me on that. I was more focused about when I could get back and start hitting.”

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.