ARLINGTON, Texas – Aaron Judge was back in the lineup as the designated hitter for the New York Yankees on Tuesday night following a 10-day stint on the injured list with a flexor tendon strain in his right elbow.
There's still no clarity on when the All-Star slugger will return to the outfield.
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Judge went 0 for 3 batting third in a 2-0 loss to the Texas Rangers. Manager Aaron Boone said Judge is supposed to start a throwing program Wednesday.
Boone all but ruled out Judge returning to the outfield as early as the next couple of days.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Boone said. “See how that first day goes. From there, we’ll probably have a better idea after a day or two of that.”
Asked how long he thought the first throwing program would last, Judge said, “No idea. But we’ll see how it goes tomorrow and hopefully I can get out there. Because we need all the big boys in the lineup.”
Boone said the leading hitter in the majors came away from a trip to the team's spring training facility in Tampa, Florida, ready to swing the bat — and test the capabilities of his arm.
“I think he’s been pretty upbeat about it,” Boone said. “I think down in Tampa, did a lot of things. Didn’t throw, but did a lot of things in kind of preparation for that throwing. So far, so good. So hopefully when he does start that throwing program, it goes well and he can progress fairly quickly.”
Judge played for the first time since July 25 coming off the elbow strain. An MRI showed no acute damage to his ulnar collateral ligament and he had a platelet-rich injection July 27, when he was placed on the IL in a move retroactive to the previous day. The first time Judge said he felt pain in the elbow was July 22 at Toronto, after he made a strong throw home when George Springer singled to right.
Judge is hitting .339, still comfortably leading the majors, is tied for fourth with 37 homers and is fifth with 85 RBIs.
New York has lost five in a row, and the Yankees have fallen to third place in the AL East behind Toronto and Boston. They were in first place to start July, but are six games behind the Blue Jays. They hold the second wild-card spot but are just a half-game ahead of the Rangers, who have spent most of the season under .500.
“We’ve got some work to do,” Judge said. “A lot of things to clean up. But the boys in here are fired up to change all that and get things right. We’ve got a great ballclub in here. It’s a lot of mistakes all around. Some mental mistakes, some physical mistakes. We’ve got to fix them now.”
Judge's return was part of a bevy of roster moves, headlined by the Yankees sending reliever Jake Bird to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre just five days after acquiring the right-hander from Colorado before the trade deadline.
Bird allowed seven runs — six earned — in two innings over his first three appearances with the Yankees, capped by Josh Jung's three-run homer in the 10th inning of the Rangers' 8-5 victory in the series opener.
“I think he got quite a bit of work there in the first half, a lot of success,” Boone said. “And he’s had some struggles lately. We still think really highly of him and think he’s not only going to help us this year in the short term but certainly in the long term, too. So hopefully this is something that does give him that little bit of a reset.”
The Yankees put newly acquired outfielder Austin Slater on the IL with a left hamstring strain. Slater, traded by the Chicago White Sox last week, exited in the second inning Monday night after running out a fielder’s choice grounder.
New York also activated right-hander Mark Leiter Jr., who has been out almost a month with a stress fracture in his leg. Right-hander Yerry de los Santos was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and right-hander JT Brubaker was designated for assignment.
Giancarlo Stanton, who has been the Yankees’ starting DH for all of his 32 games this season, was displaced by Judge in the lineup. His 10th homer was a two-run shot in the fourth Monday that gave the Yankees a 5-4 lead over the Rangers. He missed the first 70 games of the season with inflammation in the tendons of both elbows.
Stanton was the potential tying run as a pinch-hitter in the ninth Tuesday night, but grounded into a double play started by a diving stop from Texas shortstop Corey Seager.
“That’s the tough part,” Boone said before the game. “G’s been in such a good place now for really most of the time he’s been back. Just feel like he’s putting together real consistent at-bats where he’s a real threat all the time. That’ll be tough to navigate these first few days.”
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