David Lennon: What's the Yankees' plan waiting for Aaron Judge? Hang tough and hope.
Aaron Judge of the Yankees looks on during the second inning against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium on June 29, 2026. Credit: Jim McIsaac
It’s not that the Yankees have adapted to life without Aaron Judge. Or learned to survive minus their three-time MVP captain.
They’ve just accepted the reality, and on Day 43 of Judge’s indefinite stint on the injured list, the promised update on his fractured rib offered little reason to believe the Yankees’ franchise cornerstone will be ready anytime soon to help chase down the Rays for the AL East title.
By soon, of course, we mean before September — and the stretch run hardly is a guarantee either.
Judge is purposely vague on timelines, so all he committed to Friday was returning to play again this season. That leaves him a pretty big window: 65 games left on the schedule after Friday and presumably more than a handful in October, too.
Judge’s initial prognosis suggested a best-case scenario of mid-August, going by the math of recovering from a broken bone. Maybe six to eight weeks to fully mend the fracture, taking him through the end of July, then crank up baseball activities again on a gradual basis.
But as Judge told us Friday, this week’s latest round of imaging tests revealed the bone still has a ways to go, and the Yankees were waiting on word from orthopedist Gregory Pearl — a specialist on problems in that rib/shoulder area — to advise them on the next steps.
“Part of it’s healing,” Judge said. “The other part of it is still trying to bridge together.”
The same terminology could be used to describe the Yankees. Historically, they’re a below-.500 team when Judge doesn’t play, and the same goes for this season.
On Friday, Aaron Boone’s ill-fated decision to stick with Gerrit Cole in the seventh inning resulted in Max Muncy’s two-run homer, which erased a 1-0 deficit and handed the Yankees a 2-1 loss to the Dodgers.
Boone visited Cole after a leadoff walk to Mookie Betts, and with lefthander Brent Headrick ready to face the lefthanded-hitting Muncy, he decided to stick with his ace righthander instead. Cole jumped ahead 0-and-2, narrowly missed a called strike three on a slider, then split the plate with another slider — pitch No. 103, his season high — that Muncy launched deep into the second deck.
“Obviously, in hindsight, I probably should have grabbed him there,” Boone said. “That’s on me.”
As a result, the Yankees slipped to 18-20 post-Judge, with Jasson Dominguez manufacturing the lone run with two outs in the fourth. He doubled to the right-center gap, took third when the hit was misplayed and scored on a passed ball to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
The Yankees sidestepped disaster in the final week before the All-Star break with four straight wins, but it’s not as if Boone & Co. can simply tread water waiting for Judge to revive their mission of winning the division title. If the Rays stay on track — and upgrade their roster at the deadline — there’s a percentage chance that Tampa Bay could be out of reach by the time Judge picks up a bat for real again.
And that’s not necessarily a failure by the Yankees, even with the redundancy that general manager Brian Cashman built into this $360 million roster.
When fully healthy, the rotation should have three legit aces in Cole, Max Fried and Cam Schlittler, along with capable support from Carlos Rodon, Ryan Weathers and Will Warren. Fried began a rehab assignment Friday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, allowing two runs and throwing 52 pitches in three innings, and Boone floated the idea of him coming back after one or two more outings.
Leaning into run prevention is one way to lessen the impact of Judge’s absence, and the Yankees are suited for that approach — especially if Cashman chooses to pursue another front-line starter (such as Tarik Skubal) at the deadline.
As for the lineup, the simultaneous swoons of Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt showed how vulnerable the Yankees’ offense is. Those glitches resulted in a 2-11 skid that bounced them from a brief stay in the AL East penthouse.
Boone can deploy whatever rah-rah language he prefers as a coping mechanism for the Judge injury, but it’s not logical to think the Yankees can accomplish the same goals with Judge as a spectator.
Just look at the star-studded Dodgers. As MLB’s top spender, with a $400 million payroll, they are well-positioned to pull off a three-peat. But how much would that change if Shohei Ohtani suddenly was removed from the equation?
“We have a lot of capable players,” Boone said Friday afternoon. “I feel like we finished the first half on a high note and we just have to continue to play well, knowing that at some point, he’ll join us.”
In the meantime, the Yankees should get some meaningful reinforcements back soon. Fried is on the very near horizon. Rodon (elbow inflammation) still is in the early stages of his own recovery, but Clarke Schmidt (Tommy John surgery) has advanced to facing live hitters.
As for the perpetually injured Giancarlo Stanton, he’s back to running again on the field. Stanton alone would greatly help alleviate the strain of Judge’s stay on the shelf. Rice is putting together an MVP season himself with 29 homers and a .974 OPS.
Same goes for Bellinger, who went through a hellacious 19-game nosedive (one RBI, .114 batting average, .348 OPS) before closing the first half in more encouraging fashion and getting the ego boost of being named All-Star Game MVP.
“You just got to continue to stay confident,” Bellinger said. “This game’s hard.”
It’s not getting any easier for the Yankees with Friday’s Judge news and the Dodgers in town for the 2024 World Series rematch.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
