ARLINGTON, Texas — The Yankees finally have some clarity on Aaron Judge’s hip, but they are not fully out of the woods just yet.
Judge is day-to-day with a mild hip strain, manager Aaron Boone said Saturday, but he will avoid the injured list at least for now. The Yankees want to give Judge a few more days of rest and treatment to see whether he continues to improve. They likely will wait until Monday to make a decision on whether he needs a stint on the IL.
“Aaron’s doing better,” Boone said before the Yankees fell, 2-0, to the Rangers at Globe Life Field. “We’re going to wait to see, today and [Sunday], see how we’re doing to see if this is something we want to take a 10-day [IL stint] or if he is ready to play by Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, we’ll kind of keep that in play. But it’ll be something we pay attention to here. … He’s shown a lot of improvements here over the last two days.”
Monday is expected to be the decision day on Judge because if he does need to go on the IL, the Yankees can still back-date it to Friday to allow him to return in the quickest time possible.
If they wait any longer, they can only back-date three days from when they make the IL call.
Judge underwent an MRI exam on Friday to find out the severity of his hip problem after feeling it “grab” during the game Thursday.
All things considered, the Yankees felt a sense of relief after getting the results.
“I think the news we got — you always go in nervous of what you’re going to hear and what you’re going to find,” Boone said. “Yeah, I think in the grand scheme of things and the big picture, we do feel like we got good news on it. But that said, we want to make sure we’re doing right by him and by us.”
Judge still has not participated in any baseball activities since he was removed early from the game Thursday, but Boone said on Saturday the captain was itching to start hitting again. The Yankees are holding him back from that as they err on the side of caution.
“The big thing will be obviously we don’t want to get into a situation where we hurt something further or put ourselves in jeopardy any further,” Boone said. “We’ll have to make that decision one way or the other. But right now, we don’t feel like we have to make that decision quite yet.”
Boone said the all-out way Judge plays the game would not factor into the ultimate decision of when he will be ready to play.
“It’s as simple as, is he ready to go?” Boone said. “If we feel like there’s some risk there, then we’ll push it back.”
Both of Judge’s recent injury scares stem from Wednesday’s game at Minnesota, when he had an awkward head-first dive into third base while trying to steal.
His right hand was initially the concern, after he rolled over it and then jammed it into the base, but he remained in the game and deemed himself fine afterward.
But Judge woke up on Thursday feeling the effects of that dive, with the whole right side of his body “locked up,” he later said. Still, he was in the lineup Thursday night and took two at-bats, but he felt a “grab” in his right hip on the second-to-last swing of his at-bat in the second inning and later came out of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Given that the head-first dive has created some issues for the Yankees’ $360 million investment, Boone said he and Judge talk a lot about “trying to keep it feet-first.”
“Whether he’s going to be safe or out, being direct into the base,” Boone said. “That said, you’re playing in the heat of the moment and as competitive as he is, sometimes that happens. Obviously the other day got himself into a little bit of a tough spot. Those are things we continue to talk about and try to lean into. Obviously it’s important for him to continue to be able to post all the time.”