That awkward dive at Daikin Park from Aaron Judge was enough to bring back horror for New York Yankees fans. Back in September 2019, their captain had endured quite a lot of trouble in his right rib cage under similar circumstances. And much like now, he had played through his injury, only to be diagnosed with a punctured lung during the offseason. He was expected to be out until at least June, but then COVID arrived and the season had to be shortened. But the Yankees don’t have the same leverage this time.

They are falling further behind the Tampa Bay Rays, while the Boston Red Sox are inching closer every other day. And their offensive struggles are piling up as well. Aaron Judge’s absence at the plate has been impossible to ignore, but finally, after more than two months, the captain has some good news.

“Yankees star Aaron Judge took a step closer to returning after playing catch for the first time since he was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his ribs in early June,” Yahoo Sports shared on X. 

Judge has been out since May 31 due to a stress fracture in the first right rib. Despite spending more than 2 months on the injured list, there hasn’t been considerable recovery for the 3x AL MVP. At least not enough for him to start baseball practices. However, on Friday, the 34-year-old played catch for the first time. But the push doesn’t end there.

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The captain also did some outdoor running.  

The right fielder suffered an injury on his right side during a matchup against the Houston Astros on April 26, but he continued to play through it for over a month. While he last appeared for the Yankees on May 31, he was placed on the 10-day IL on June 5 due to increased discomfort, and the imaging revealed a rib fracture.

Even after a month, there wasn’t significant improvement, and New York had to transfer him to the 60-day IL. That was July 18. 

The captain said that he felt better, but it was still not enough for a return. Then there was another scan on August 5.

That revealed enough healing for the doctors to clear him for outdoor running and upper body resistance training. It was enough for Aaron Judge to feel positive about returning this season.

Previously, he was limited to lower body and neck exercises.

At the moment, Aaron Boone and the team are playing it safe with Judge’s return without pushing him too much. 

“We expect him back, but we’re in the early stages of baseball activities, so hopefully things continue to go well,” Boone said, via MLB.com. “He hasn’t done any baseball things in a while, so there’s a lot more to do.”

From 2020 through 2025, the team has won at a 94-win pace per 162 games with Judge in the lineup, while that has dropped to a 76-win pace without him. This season, in the captain’s absence, the team has recorded 32-31. And their lineup sits at the 2nd-worst OPS in the league (.636).

While Boone has added that Judge may not necessarily need any more re-imaging during his rehab progress until the very end, he has not yet done “any baseball things in a while.”

Friday was definitely good news, but there’s still a lot to do; yet, Aaron Judge has expressed his hope to return to the lineup this season.

While every person related to the Yankees is hoping for a quick return, the conversation has gone way past the duration of Judge’s time on the IL.

It’s not about his recovery timeline anymore

Judge played his last game in May, and the Yankees were among the top of the MLB teams with 305 runs and a .243 batting average. During his absence, they scored just 241 runs, and their batting average now stands at .230 (29th in the league). Their 5.2 runs per game went down to just 3.9 after the Pinstripes placed Judge on the IL. 

In the division, they are still in second place and comfortably en route to the playoffs with a +7.5-game cushion in the Wild Card race. But the team that was once going toe-to-toe with the Rays for the top spot in the AL East is now 6.5 games behind them.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox have had a dramatic turnaround. They are just 2.0 games away from replacing the Yankees. That’s why analyst Stephen A. Smith exclaimed that the Yankees don’t appear to be as formidable as they once were. 

But that’s not entirely on Aaron Judge.

New York is also missing other key hitters like Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger due to injury. Even players like Ben Rice, Trent Grisham, and Jazz Chisholm Jr are not performing their best at this moment. Their rotation is the only thing holding them together. 

But every fan fears that with the current conditions, a deep run in October is almost impossible. That’s why the positive update about Judge is a huge boost for them. But they have only 39 games remaining in the regular season.

Do you think that the captain will be fully healthy in time to end the Yankees’ World Series drought?