Yankees aren't close to putting Aaron Judge in rightfield

Saturday marked Aaron Judge’s fourth game as the Yankees’ designated hitter since he returned from his 10-day stint on the  injured list.  

The flexor strain in Judge's right elbow still has him a ways away from returning to rightfield, which Giancarlo Stanton occupied for the first time since September 2023 during Saturday afternoon’s 5-4 win over  the Astros.

Does Judge have an idea of when he'd like to be back out there?

“About 10 days ago,” he told Newsday on Saturday morning.

Alas, this is the Yankees’ current situation.

Judge is only two days into his throwing program, with no timeline on when he will play the field again. He has been throwing from only 60 to 90 feet and does not have an exact measure of what he needs to reach to be fully built up.

“I haven't even thought about that,” Judge said. “Just kind of getting into it, they don't want me to get too optimistic. So I tell them, ‘Hey, if I can throw a ball 60 feet, let me go play in the outfield.’ But they weren't too happy about that, so we'll see. We'll just see how this progresses, and you just got to keep asking what's next. I’m trying to get out there, so we’ll see what happens.”

Manager Aaron Boone reiterated that there is no realistic target for Judge’s return to the outfield.

“I'll just kind of listen to him and the trainers as they go through it,” Boone said before Saturday’s game. “I know he threw again yesterday. That seemed to be at least a little bit better than when he threw on Wednesday. So I don't have any timeline right now, but we'll see.”

Judge’s injury was far from the worst-case scenario, as he avoided any ulnar collateral ligament  damage. He noted that most pitchers in the Yankees’ clubhouse have had flexor strains, and he leaned on them for advice on symptoms and recovery.

Judge, who owns a .339/.447/.697 slash line with 37 homers and 86 RBIs in 107 games, has gone 3-for-12 with three singles and three walks in four games since coming off the IL. He said he  has felt no pain while swinging.

“That's kind of how I felt, even going to before,” Judge said. “I was like, ‘Hey, let's not go on the IL. I can swing. I can DH, and we can figure out the rest.’ But we didn’t want any setbacks with it, so we went that route. But so far, so good.”

Oswaldo Cabrera: Walking and in good spirits

The scene was hard to believe.

It was May 12 in Seattle, and Oswaldo Cabrera had suffered a gruesome left ankle fracture on an awkward slide into home plate. Head trainer Tim Lentych was on the ground cradling Cabrera, whose left leg eventually was braced and put in an air cast before he was taken off the field in an ambulance.

Less than three months later, Cabrera is walking without pain around the Yankees' clubhouse.

“I'm feeling great,” he told Newsday. “I'm feeling much better every day, getting better. Excited to keep working the way that we are working right now.”

Cabrera is not jogging yet, but he said “we’re going to get there soon.” He said he started to walk with caution about two weeks ago. Now walking is “fluid” and he is not thinking about any pain.

He is working to get back to baseball activities soon.

“I’m going to say the most quick [way] possible because I don't want to rush,” Cabrera said. “I don't want to put myself in a position that I’m going to get back to the pain or something. But my goal is to make sure that everything heals in the right way. That's the challenge of this injury, so I think that's the big part of this.”

Could it be this season?

“We are working on that,” he said. “We don't know yet. I’m not going to tell you yes or not, but we're working on it to see if we can get back this season.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.