The Yankees announced that outfielder Aaron Judge has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 28, with a right hip strain. Outfielder Franchy Cordero was recalled in a corresponding move.
Judge was diagnosed with a hip strain in recent days but he and the club tried to see how it developed before officially placing him on the injured list. IL placements can be backdated as many as three days, as long as the player didn’t play in that time. Judge last played on Thursday but it seems that there’s still enough lingering concern with the issue that he’ll take another week off to get it healthy.
Obviously, playing without Judge will be a blow for the Yanks as he’s one of the best players on the planet. Last year, he had an epic season that involved 62 home runs, a 15.9% walk rate and a .311/.425/.686 batting line. Keeping that kind of production going for a second straight year would have been an incredibly difficult task and Judge is indeed shy of that, but his .261/.352/.511 line this year is still excellent.
While losing Judge will undoubtedly hurt the Yanks, it’s still quite early in the season and it makes sense for the club to exercise caution as opposed to heedlessly throwing him into the lineup every day and risk of exacerbating the issue. Since his IL placement seemed to be a borderline case, it seems fair to expect a minimal stint, though the club hasn’t announced any kind of official timeline.
Without Judge, the Yanks will have a hodgepodge of outfielders jockeying for playing time, including Cordero, Willie Calhoun, Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Cabrera, Jake Bauers and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. None of those players is having a strong season so far, with Cordero’s .151/.182/.396 batting line and 52 wRC+ the strongest of the bunch.
Help could be on the way shortly, however, as Harrison Bader is currently on a rehab assignment. He’s missed the entire season thus far due to an oblique strain but manager Aaron Boone tells reporters, including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, that he could be back by this weekend.
Edp007
Last place in the east for the crankees, horrible roster , Angels North.
lamars
Horrible roster? I think not. Hit by the injury bug? Yes!
The problem with the Yankees is that there is no depth to the team and as of now looks like a AAA team. Like the article states the Yankees are expected to get Bader back and Rodon and Severino shouldn’t be too far off.
Blue Baron
Horrible roster may be a very slight overstatement, but a roster comprises 40 players, and “no depth to the team” is synonymous with a bad roster.
flamingbagofpoop
It’s a team full of injury prone players with no depth…that’s pretty horrible roster construction.
lamars
Like Blue Baron stated, this is a badly constructed roster and not a horribly constructed one.
No one and I mean no one can predict injuries. No one saw Rodon getting hurt, Severino suffering a lat injury or Bader pulling his oblique before the season started or losing both Judge and Stanton in April. That’s not a sign of a horribly constructed roster.
bronxmac77
The likelihood of players getting injured increases with age. Stanton has been injury prone for years. So has Rodon. Trading a young Gio Urshela for an aging expensive Donaldson never made sense to me.
Sure, some injuries can be simple bad luck or ‘part of the game’. But loading a roster with older, expensive players is kind of asking for exactly what has happened.
Kemajic
It was a challenge to unload Sanchez.
bronxmac77
Should have just DFA’d him.
That would be Cashman admitting a mistake. That doesn’t happen.
lamars
Bronx –
While injury prone Stanton was young when the Yankees traded for him. The injured Judge was brought up at the age of 24. And the Yankees pretty much had no choice but to resign him at age 31 knowing full well that the contract won’t age well.. As for Rodon he was coming off a 31 start season and was worth taking a flier on and was a better signing than signing Degrom.
bronxmac77
I didn’t think then that Stanton and his huge contract were a good idea. The Yanks had a good RFer who had just set a rookie record for HRs. At the time the Yanks had a good young nucleus. For some reason, Cashman decided to start buying up older, higher-priced guys… The formula that has really never worked.
Kemajic
Bader will be a big solution. 2 for 19 at SWB.
lamars
Wow, you got that after 19 at bats? Brillant!
bronxmac77
Yankees tied with Astros South, Angels North.
Milwaukee-2208
Highest paid IL team of all time. Rondon/Judge/Stanton/Donaldson
JayRyder
Rodon IL Also ? Wow. !
Blue Baron
Where do you live, Norway?
10centBeerNight
Team very very mortal without this bro in lineup
Milwaukee-2208
They’re mortal with him lol
*see ALCS 2022*
josebatflip
Why would they recall Franchy Cordero instead of Estevan Florial?! Florial is good defensively, is putting up amazing stats in Triple A, and (unlike Cordero) has actually never had a fair chance in the Majors. The year is already going horribly for the Yanks so why not finally try Florial out now?
Joe says...
I don’t think Florial is on the 40 man anymore. Calling up Cordero doesn’t require any other moves. Definitely no need to do any extra if Judge is only going to miss a few games.
YankeesBleacherCreature
I’d say no chance they’d ever call him up again. He’s purely trade-bait at this point.
wilhar8
Open a spot on the 40 and dfa Franchy.
ChuckyNJ
Florial was DFA’d off the 40-man roster and outrighted to Scranton a month ago. Currently hitting .254 but striking out once every 3 at-bats.
YankeesBleacherCreature
Par for the course. He has poor pitch recognition but can hit mistakes.
bronxmac77
True. But I don’t think Aaron Hicks could hit Florial if Florial walked across home plate, by mistake.
Roll
Just putting this out there
at the same number of major league plate appearances Florial (career) and Volpe (up to that point) had the same number of hits and 2 less strike outs for Volpe along with roughly the same batting average at 180ish. This is with Volpe getting consistent playing with florial going up and down for a couple of games at a time over a few years.
Scott Kliesen
How long until Cole asks to be traded back to Pirates so he can try to win a ring?
YankeesBleacherCreature
Does that mean the Yankees can finally get Bryan Reynolds?
wilhar8
He won’t be a difference maker.
alwaysgo4two
Time to call up Dominguez. Everyone knows that he’s the next Yankees savior.
In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani
His parents must be thinking, “That’s ar son.”
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
I met Jesus up on a hill
He confessed I was dressed to kill
Saw fear eternal in his eyes
He’s seen what happens when the soul dies
utah cornelius
Sounds like something a Stephen King villain would say.
ArianaGrandSlam
l’d say the team is just one step away from catastrophic. Lose Cole and done.
Joe says...
I’m not going to be surprised to find that Cortez is injured. His velo was down in that butt kicking against Texas.
sportsfan101
Very sad to say his stat line in excellent. Wtf is baseball coming too?!
YankeesBleacherCreature
Average MLB slash line this season is .247/.321/.405 which is a tick better than last year.
In Seager/Hader We Trust > the 70 MM DH Ohtani
Still embarrassing
bronxmac77
Mediocrity.
dt47
We all knew Judge was going on IL -scene was played out with “good news “ -not the Yankees year -young players not ready -will continue to get worse
Fraham_
Imagine having a 300 million dollar payroll with a Cabrera, Hicks, IKF outfield.
Kemajic
Great call by Boone. Green light on a 3-0 for Cabrera and his .223 OBP. Ground out to 2B; big surprise. Lost among all his bad bullpen decisions tonight.
bronxmac77
Dumping Gerardi for an ESPN broadcast guy never made sense to me.
Dr2022
One of many I am afraid
Kemajic
The kids (Volpe, Paraza, Cabrera) are young and cheap. But together they have a .578 OPS.
bronxmac77
Just looked up the team totals…
.677 OPS
89 OPS+
That’s not good. At all.
Cap & Crunch
Hodgepodge is being nice, woof
Maybe try Stl again for an OF here soon if they continue sliding
lamars
@ Cap
And what do the Yankees have to offer for said OFer? Do you thnk the Cardinals are just going to give O’Neil or Carlson away?
Dr2022
They can have Cordero and will throw in Hicks
Jurassic Carl
.261 is excellent? Who the hell writes these articles?
bronxmac77
Analytics departments.
Just a guess.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
It’s early yet. The Yankees are getting two pitchers back soon Rodon & Severino. The bullpen has the second lowest ERA in the league. Cole is having a phenomenal start. This thing with Judge may be a minimal IL stay. What needs to occur though is for some actual deft decision making by Cashman…and we are all a bit skeptical if he’s up to that challenge anymore. I think he should quit prospect hugging and send some (or a few) guys out for some legitimate MLB talent, preferably 28 years old or younger. Not sure who, off the top of my head, but perhaps guys like Tyler O’Neill to play LF and Ryan McMahon for 3B. Don’t give up hope yet, but it all hinges on Cashman making some deft maneuvers on the trade front.
bronxmac77
I agree about the bullpen … Pleasant surprise to me. And the thing about ‘Cashman’s prospect hugging’… The Yankees never give them enough playing time to actually see if they’ve got a chance to stick. It’s like they’re stockpiling guys at AAA for no apparent reason.
Dr2022
How are they though. There is no evidence of that. And if you follow the Yankees, you know how this goes, they have setbacks in the rehab Rodon already has, and who knows when he will return.
LordD99
Judge on the IL is not the issue. Having a bench of Cordero, Cabrera and Hicks is.
bronxmac77
Not sure how Hicks has a job.
lamars
Because they over paid for him.
bronxmac77
Not sure how that decision maker still has a job.
Dr2022
10 million a year guarenteed!
bronxmac77
Germán: 88 pitches, 65 strikes. 8-1/3 innings of 1 run ball. If that isn’t a mirage against a good Cleveland team, I’ll take it.
The Yankees need someone besides Cole and Nestor to realistically get past the fourth inning on a regular basis. At one time Domingo showed tons of promise. Maybe he’s back on track to fulfilling that promise.
Viveleempireevil
He’s 31 years old and is 6’7″ tall and weighs 282 lbs. And now he has a hip injury. Hip injuries in guys of his size are not good. I hope he makes it back soon but if I’m Hal Steinbrenner I’m wondering if I overpaid by about $330M.
Kemajic
Rodon, Stanton, Severino and Montas are China dolls. Fragile.
bronxmac77
“Judge is indeed shy of that, but his .261/.352/.511 line this year is still excellent.”
Personally, I consider an 1.000 OPS hall-of-fame level. Excellent is .900. .800? Above average.
Just my opinion.
Dumpster Divin Theo
Willie Calhoun can handle center. Let’s see it!
bronxmac77
Matt Carpenter stashed in San Diego… .822 OPS, 16 RBI in 61 AB. Aloha.