Aaron Judge

Injury Notes: Alvarez, Pham, Franmil, Judge

By Mark Polishuk | August 16, 2020 at 9:35pm CDT

Yordan Alvarez was a late scratch from today’s Astros lineup, as the young slugger continues to battle knee issues. Manager Dusty Baker told the Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome and other reporters that Alvarez arrived at the ballpark feeling knee soreness, which Baker suspected was from an awkward slide into third base during Saturday’s game. Alvarez has been dealing with bad knees throughout his young career, and he has already been limited to DH duty for this season.

Since past tests haven’t revealed any structural problems, it could be that Alvarez’s knees could simply limit him going forward, perhaps both in 2020 and beyond. It certainly isn’t what you want to see from a 23-year-old player, especially one who has been so productive even amidst this knee pain, and Baker acknowledged that the team will keep a close eye on managing Alvarez for the rest of the season.

More on some of the many injury situations popping up on a daily basis around baseball…

Tommy Pham was removed during a ninth-inning at-bat during today’s Padres/Diamondbacks game. Pham was seemingly favoring his hand after hitting a foul ball, and left after a consultation with a team trainer. This is the second straight game Pham has left early, as he was removed during the second inning of Saturday’s contest due to cramping in both calves. However, he was back in today’s starting lineup as the DH and didn’t seem any worse for wear, going 1-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base. [UPDATE: the Padres are worried Pham has a broken hamate bone, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.]
Franmil Reyes hit two home runs during the Indians’ 8-5 victory over the Tigers today, though Reyes’ big day had a painful ending after he was hit in the left hand by a pitch during a ninth-inning plate appearance. Reyes was removed from the game, though he was diagnosed with only a contusion after x-rays were negative. It seems likely Reyes will miss a game or two, though an injured list placement doesn’t seem likely at this point. Reyes has been one of the few highlights for a struggling Cleveland lineup, as Reyes has hit .316/.366/.553 with five home runs.
Aaron Judge’s 10-day IL stint may be a minimal one, as the Yankees star told Newsday’s Roger Rubin and other media that he is already recovered from his minor calf strain just two days after his placement. “I was begging for just a couple days…and I don’t need 10 days to be feeling good. I already feel 100 percent now,” Judge said. While Judge is “frustrated with myself not being out there,” he “wouldn’t say I’m frustrated with the organization. This shows how much the organization cares for me and looks out for my well-being.” Given how much time Judge (and other Yankees players) have missed due to injury in recent years, it makes sense that the club would be as cautious as possible in making sure a seemingly minor injury didn’t blossom into a bigger issue.

Yankees Place Aaron Judge On IL

By Jeff Todd | August 14, 2020 at 4:23pm CDT

The Yankees have decided to place outfielder Aaron Judge on the injured list, manager Aaron Boone announced to reporters including Erik Boland of Newsday (via Twitter). He’s dealing with a mild calf strain.

Boone made clear that this is only a precautionary move. While the injury is said to be merely a grade 1 strain, if that, the team is exercising ample caution with its star slugger.

Yankees fans will be forgiven for fostering greater concern than the skipper himself let on. Judge hasn’t topped five hundred plate appearances in a season since his mammoth 2017 rookie year, owing to a series of health issues.

It’s much the same situation with fellow middle-of-the-order centerpiece Giancarlo Stanton. He’s also sidelined with what’s hoped to be a mild leg muscle issue, but comes with the same sort of worrisome background. In their absence, former top prospect Clint Frazier could get a window to prove himself.

Aaron Judge Says He’ll Be Ready For Opening Day

By Jeff Todd | July 6, 2020 at 9:19pm CDT

Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge appears to be a full go as Summer Camp opens. He told reporters including James Wagner of the New York Times (Twitter link) that he’s ready for action and preparing for Opening Day.

Judge’s health likely would’ve been a big storyline and major area of uncertainty for the Yanks had the season gotten underway as normal. But when the pandemic put things on ice, Judge had a chance for a lengthy respite to heal from nettlesome rib injury that originally took quite some time to diagnose.

While camp just got started, it’s just over two weeks until baseball’s bizarre 2020 season will be rolling. The quick ramp creates a bit of added concern, but Judge indicated he has already been hitting and putting himself through the paces before reporting for the second preparatory phase of the year.

If indeed Judge — and some other notable Yankees — are fully healed up, they’ll make for an immensely imposing lineup. The short season is generally disadvantageous to the most talented teams, since shorter swings of fortune will create more opportunities for other organizations. Then again, it also means the loaded Yanks roster will not have to endure as long of a grind before launching a hopeful postseason run.

Cashman: Yankees “Optimistic” Judge Will Be Ready For Opening Day

By Steve Adams | June 30, 2020 at 1:43pm CDT

After months of uncertainty surrounding the status of Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, general manager Brian Cashman said on a conference call today that the team is optimistic he’ll be ready for the rescheduled Opening Day (Twitter links via The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler). The Yankees are also optimistic that Giancarlo Stanton will be ready to open the year in the DH slot. Lefty James Paxton is expected to be ready to go as well, and it’s possible that center fielder Aaron Hicks could be game-ready come Opening Day as well.

Judge’s entire injury saga has been bizarrely vague, but it seems an end is at last in sight. It took the club several weeks early in camp to diagnose a stress fracture in his rib, and only two weeks later did the team reveal that Judge was also found to have a collapsed lung. Near the end of March, Boone revealed that Judge’s injuries may have dated all the way back to last September. Even throughout the shutdown, updates on Judge lacked specific timelines and frequently pointed to additional imaging as the next step.

Stanton sustained a calf injury back in Spring Training, and Cashman indicated today that he’s quite specifically referencing a DH-only role with regard to the former NL MVP’s Opening Day readiness. The YES Network’s Jack Curry tweets that the club wants to evaluate Stanton in camp before making any declaration about his ability to play in the outfield.

Paxton is more than four months removed from back surgery and could be game-ready right now, according to Cashman. There’s a bit less certainty regarding Hicks, who is eight months out from last year’s Tommy John surgery. Hicks has already proclaimed himself ready to go for the season opener, though the organization is understandably taking a bit more reserved approach and will use “Summer Camp” (as the league has now termed it) to make its own evaluation.

Latest On Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton

By Connor Byrne | June 25, 2020 at 5:56pm CDT

Had the regular season started when it was supposed to in late March, the Yankees would have had to go without the face of their franchise, right fielder Aaron Judge, for a lengthy period of time. A right rib fracture and a punctured lung slowed Judge during the first version of spring training this year, but the slugger now has a chance to be in the Yankees’ season-opening lineup in a month, Erik Boland of Newsday reports.

Judge, whose injury problems first cropped up in February, has finally returned to hitting off a tee, per Boland. While that doesn’t mean he’ll be ready for Game 1 of the Yankees’ season, it’s still a a positive development for the club, which would have opened a normal season without three of its best outfield options in Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks. Each player was shelved with injuries during the spring, though we now know Hicks expects to return from his October 2019 Tommy John procedure once the season starts.

Like Hicks, Stanton – who dealt with a calf strain during the spring – is a near certainty right now to be part of New York’s opener, according to Boland. Injuries have been a major problem dating back to last season for Stanton, whose second year as a Yankee consisted of a mere 18 games.

12 Years Later, This Trade’s Still Paying Off For Yankees

By Connor Byrne | May 21, 2020 at 6:59pm CDT

It has been a dozen years since the Yankees swung a trade for outfielder Nick Swisher, who paid immediate dividends as part of the franchise and whose acquisition continues to benefit the organization to this day. On Nov. 13, 2008, the Yankees sent two minor league pitchers – Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez – as well as veteran infielder Wilson Betemit to the White Sox for Swisher and young hurler Kanekoa Texeira. Most of the pieces in the swap – Marquez, Nunez and Texeira – failed to pan out in the majors, but the move revived the switch-hitting Swisher’s career and helped him land a sizable payday in free agency down the road.

If we go back to the start, Swisher opened his career as a rather effective member of the Athletics, who chose him 16th overall in the 2002 draft. As a member of the big club from 2004-07, Swisher batted .251/.361/.464 (118 wRC+) with 80 home runs and 10.0 fWAR over 1,924 plate appearances, aiding Oakland in three plus-.500 seasons and a playoff berth. However, almost six years after spending a high pick on him, the A’s sold the affable Swisher, dealing him to the White Sox in January 2008 for a package led by left-hander Gio Gonzalez. That worked out fine for Oakland, which received a couple terrific years from Gonzalez before trading him to the Nationals in December 2011 in yet another notable transaction.

While the A’s profited from Gonzalez’s presence, his career took a bad turn in his first year out of Oakland. The 2008 campaign was one of the worst of Swisher’s time in the game, and he was unable to win the favor of then-White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen as a result. While Swisher was seemingly a solid clubhouse presence in the majors, Guillen thought the opposite. He said in November 2008, a little while after the White Sox parted with Swisher: “To be honest with you, I was not happy with the way he was reacting at the end of the season. He wasn’t helping me either.” Maybe the relationship would have been better had Swisher produced, though he instead struggled to a .219/.332/.410 line (93 wRC+) in 588 PA. But Swisher did pop 24 home runs, his third of nine straight seasons with 20-plus, and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman decided to buy low on him.

To this day, the Swisher pickup looks like one of the most brilliant decisions of Cashman’s lengthy tenure atop New York’s front office. Swisher was a quality contributor throughout his time as a Yankee, including in a 2009 campaign that saw the team win its most recent World Series championship. From that season through 2012, Swisher’s last as a Yankee, he hit .268/.367/.483 (128 wRC+) with 105 HRs and 14.4 fWAR across 2,501 PA, also earning his lone All-Star berth in the process. But the Yankees were not willing to commit to Swisher once he became a free agent before 2013, which, for multiple reasons, was a wise call in hindsight.

In January 2013, the Ohio-born Swisher returned to his native state on a four-year, $56MM contract with the Indians. Unfortunately for Cleveland, it didn’t get anything close to the Yankees’ version of Swisher. Owing in part to knee problems, Swisher slashed a below-average .228/.311/.377 (92 wRC+) with 32 homers and minus-0.5 fWAR in 1,146 PA in an Indians uniform. They dealt Swisher and fellow outfielder Michael Bourn to the Braves for infielder Chris Johnson in August 2015. That proved to be Swisher’s final season in MLB, though he did return to the Yankees on a minor league contract in 2016 before his career came to an end later that year.

The season after Swisher said goodbye to pro baseball, another star was born in New York. Towering right fielder Aaron Judge, a top 100 prospect in his younger days, exploded on the scene in 2017, batting .284/.422/.627 (174 wRC+), smacking 52 homers and racking up 8.3 fWAR. Judge fell short of AL MVP honors then, but he won Rookie of the Year in his league and was part of a club that took the eventual title-winning Astros to a seven-game LCS.

While injuries have somewhat limited Judge’s availability since his initial season, you can’t argue with the production he has managed when he has been able to take the field. Since his second year, Judge has recorded a line of .278/.392/.528 (good for a 146 wRC+) and amassed 54 dingers with 9.7 fWAR.

Judge is now 28 years old, a two-time All-Star and perhaps the face of the Bronx-based franchise, but he may have never gotten there if not for Swisher. Allowing Swisher to depart in free agency entitled the Yankees to a compensatory selection in the ensuing draft. They used that pick, No. 32 in 2013, on Judge – a former Fresno State Bulldog. So, not only did the Yankees benefit from Swisher’s best seasons as a pro, but stealing him from the White Sox 12 years ago is still paying off for them in a big way.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Cashman Optimistic That Judge Will Be Ready For Start Of Season

By Jeff Todd | May 14, 2020 at 5:33pm CDT

Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge appears to be making quite a lot of progress while awaiting word on whether and when the season will occur. GM Brian Cashman says the organization is “excited to believe that he’s going to rejoin us at full capacity,” as Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News reports.

The “very unique” rib injury suffered by Judge has been complicated to treat and largely defied clear timelines. It’s rather notable, then, to hear Cashman speak with such clarity on the matter.

Though specifics on Judge’s readiness and the 2020 season schedule aren’t yet known, it sounds as if Judge would be ready to go for a shortened Spring Training that could launch in June. With little time for all players to ramp up for a compressed season, it’ll be critical for the towering outfielder to get himself to 100% before baseball re-launches.

Cashman indicated that Judge isn’t fully out of the woods yet. Imaging “shows the healing” and has left the team hopeful of “expected healing moving forward,” says Cashman, so it sounds as if there’s a lot of progress but also some ground left to be covered.

Quick Hits: Judge, Team Finances, Tsutsugo

By Mark Polishuk | May 10, 2020 at 10:27pm CDT

Should the Yankees sign Aaron Judge to a long-term extension? Joel Sherman of the New York Post isn’t sure, noting that Judge already has a significant injury history, is already under team control through his age-30 season, and how the Yankees’ financial situation will be impacted in the post-coronavirus baseball world. There’s also the fact that the Yankees have generally shied away from contract extensions since Hal Steinbrenner took over the team, and the two players whose deals were most recently extended (Aaron Hicks and Luis Severino) have battled injuries since inking those new contracts. Judge is in the first of his three arbitration-eligible seasons, and back in January agreed to an $8.5MM deal for the 2020 season.

Latest On Aaron Judge, Other Injured Yankees

By Steve Adams | May 6, 2020 at 12:54pm CDT

May 6: In light of Boone’s comments yesterday, the New York Post’s Dan Martin reports that the club has privately been expecting a June or July recovery date for Judge. The slugger hasn’t experienced any setbacks along the way, per Martin, but it seems the organization has simply anticipated that his recovery process will be a fairly lengthy one.

May 5: Yankees skipper Aaron Boone provided updates on several injured Yankees in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM earlier this morning (Twitter link, with audio).

Center fielder Aaron Hicks, on the mend from 2019 Tommy John surgery, is throwing from 90-plus feet and is taking soft toss from both sides of the plate as he continues his rehab. Hicks went under the knife about six and a half months ago and was initially slated for a timeline of eight to ten months. He’s “trending in a really good direction,” per Boone.

The outlook appears even brighter for lefty James Paxton and slugger Giancarlo Stanton. The former is now three months (to the day) removed from back surgery and is expected to be recovered by “mid-May,” per Boone. Paxton has tossed five bullpen sessions already and pitched a simulated game just yesterday. Stanton, meanwhile, is “doing really well and should be good to go whenever we get ready to go back.”

On Aaron Judge, the projection is a bit murkier. He’s slated to undergo another CT scan in “a couple more weeks,” which suggests that the right fielder’s fractured rib has not yet fully healed. Judge’s entire injury scenario has been shrouded in varying degrees of uncertainty. It took the club several weeks early in camp to diagnose the stress fracture in his rib, and only two weeks later did the team reveal that Judge was also found to have a collapsed lung. Near the end of March, Boone revealed that Judge’s injuries may have dated all the way back to last September. It’s been a frustrating saga for Yankees fans, and it seems there’s still no definitive timetable in place for the 28-year-old’s recovery — or at least not one they’re comfortable sharing publicly just yet.

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Judge, Cobb

By Jeff Todd | April 23, 2020 at 9:37pm CDT

Here’s the latest chatter from the AL East …

So, that whole Red Sox sign-stealing saga is over with now … right? Not entirely, as Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic write (subscription link). The determinations of commissioner Rob Manfred create quite a few questions — not least of which involving his decision to focus the brunt of his punitive power on one Red Sox employee (replay operator J.T. Watkins). Manfred’s actions haven’t sated MLBTR readers, at least, according to the early results of our poll on the punishments. Perhaps the most interesting issue, from a broader perspective, involves the league’s responsibility for managing all this. As Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom puts it: “I also think structurally we ought to do everything we can to make sure that confusion can’t occur and that these aspects of our game are beyond reproach.” Another way to frame the matter: the rules and enforcement regime needs to be set up to ensure results rather than dealing with fallout on an ad hoc basis.
It seemed the Yankees were going to spend the early part of the 2020 season dealing with another odd slate of injuries before the season went on pause. Now that star outfielder Aaron Judge has had plenty of time to figure out what was bothering him (rib stress fracture) and to recuperate … might that be avoided? MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch writes that Judge is working out at the Yankees’ spring complex and taking his time to avoid any unnecessary complications. Judge says he expects to be ready for “doing a little more here in about a week or two,” at which point he can hopefully begin building towards baseball readiness. There’s still nothing close to a clear starting point for the 2020 season, so there’s obviously no rush.
Alex Cobb’s signing is one of several big-contract misfires that have hamstrung the Orioles over the years. But he had seemingly fully recovered from the hip problem that plagued him last year, MLB.com’s Joe Trezza writes. Cobb had a rough 2018 season and made only three starts last year, but there’s still time for the 32-year-old to provide at least some value. The best-case scenario probably would’ve been a bounce back during the first half of the 2020 season, potentially setting the stage for a mid-summer deal. Perhaps now the O’s will end up attempting to move Cobb — who’s owed $14MM in 2020 and $15MM in 2021 — over the ensuing offseason, depending upon what (if anything) he’s able to show this year.

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