5 questions facing the Yankees in the second half of season

It was all going so well.

With a victory over the White Sox on June 17, the Yankees improved to an American League-best 45-27, bumping their lead in the East over the Rays to 3½ games. Most significant, the Yankees improved to 9-4 without their captain Aaron Judge, who had not played since May 31 and was placed on the injured list June 5 with a fractured rib.

Maybe, just maybe, the Yankees had the kind of team that could win without Judge in the lineup, something they had not done with regularity in past seasons when the three-time AL MVP was out for an extended period.

Turns out, that very much remains debatable as the season’s second half opens Friday night at the Stadium with a monster series against the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers.

Here are five questions facing the Yankees, now three games behind the Rays after a mostly brutal 3½ weeks to end the first half, heading into the second half:

When will Aaron Judge return?

This, of course, is question No. 1, and the answer may start to come into focus this week. Judge, relegated to just lower body work with no baseball activities the last six weeks as to protect the affected rib, was slated this week to undergo a second round of imaging. GM Brian Cashman said last week the Yankees don’t expect the MRI to come back completely “clean,” but the hope is it shows enough healing has taken place to allow Judge to least be cleared to start baseball activities and build his way back to being big-league ready. From the start of Judge’s IL stint, the organization privately thought a return by mid-August would be a best-case scenario, which remains a possibility if the MRI shows good news. If not, that brings into play the worst-case scenario: Judge not returning at all in 2026. And that simultaneously would bring into play the Yankees’ season getting torpedoed. Even with the encouraging four-game winning streak to end first half, the Yankees' record without Judge stands at just 18-19. Their season doesn’t end with a bad MRI result because making the playoffs still seems a lock in an across-the-board weak AL. But advancing deep into October without Judge likely is too steep a hill to climb.

What will the trade deadline bring?

The Yankees, from the time they left spring training, internally felt they needed back-end-of-the-bullpen reinforcements and, if Austin Wells didn’t hit, a righty-hitting catcher. Though closer David Bednar rebounded from a rough start, the Yankees will look hard for a lock-down late-inning reliever. And probably two because one option they thought they might have in that category, heat-throwing prospect Carlos Lagrange, suffered a shoulder injury late in the season’s first half and could be done for the year. And Wells, though showing some recent life at the plate, hasn’t hit. Starting pitching isn’t a “need” per se, but the Yankees will at the very least check in on Tigers ace Tarik Skubal should Detroit make him available. But the priorities before the Aug. 3 deadline are what they’ve been since late March, though a new need could arise if the prospect of playing the rest of the season without Judge becomes a real one.

Can Ben Rice keep it going?

It has been a breakout season for the 27-year-old first baseman/designated hitter, who entered the break with a team-best 29 homers, that total ranking him third in the majors. Once Judge went down, Rice, who started the season strong, emerged as a legitimate AL MVP candidate. And that status was only enhanced as his first lengthy slump of the season almost directly coincided with the Yankees' skid to end the first half. Yes, Rice was part of a lineup that collectively went into a hard-to-fathom slump during the club’s 5-15 stretch toward the end of the first half, but it became clear just how important the lefty’s bat had become in Judge’s absence. It was not coincidental that in the Yankees’ final four games before the break – all wins – Rice went 6-for-14 (.429) with three homers and a 1.770 OPS.

Will Gerrit Cole again resemble his pre-surgery self?

Cole, who turns 36 in September, came out of the gate hot in his return from Tommy John surgery, posting a 2.57 ERA in his first five starts after returning to the rotation on May 22 (he allowed two hits over six scoreless innings that first game against the Rays). But the righthander closed the first half with a 6.00 ERA in his last four starts, Cole in that stretch experiencing what the vast majority of pitchers do after returning from a significant surgery, whether it be Tommy John or any other kind of invasive procedure involving their arm or shoulder. Pitchers in those circumstances generally talk about not feeling quite as sharp or precise with their repertoire after returning, something Cole at times has gone through. Most encouraging is Cole’s velocity – specifically his high-90s fastball – mostly holding steady through the end of his outings, an indication fatigue hasn’t been an issue. Pitchers who have undergone serious surgeries often talk about how it isn’t until their second year back that they truly feel like themselves again, and it is still an open question if that will be the case with Cole.

Will top prospect George Lombard Jr. make his big-league debut?

Lombard, the much hyped 21-year-old shortstop prospect who has dazzled in big-league camp each of the last two spring trainings, began a minor league rehab assignment this week after going on the IL with multiple sprained fingers on his glove (left) hand several weeks earlier. Lombard, who had been playing well at Triple-A before the injury, won’t need a lot of rehab games before getting activated and Cashman, not typically prone over the years with hyping his prospects (there have been exceptions in recent years such as with Gary Sanchez and Clint Frazier), did not rule out Lombard getting serious consideration for a promotion to the majors at some point down the stretch.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.