Three questions for Aaron Judge and the Yankees as injury casts doubt on slugger's playoff availability — SkimNews
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- Aaron Judge returned to the injured list with a right calf strain — less than two weeks after coming back from a fractured rib that sidelined him more than three months — and manager Aaron Boone declined to give a timeline, calling calf injuries "tricky and easy to reinjure."
- Judge hit just 4-for-23 (.174) with 13 strikeouts in seven games after returning from the rib injury, missing on 41% of his swings against fastballs — more than double the 19% league average — and now has even fewer at-bats to rediscover his timing before the postseason.
- The Yankees are effectively locked into the top wild-card spot, holding a six-game cushion in the loss column over the Boston Red Sox with the tiebreaker already clinched, and can secure the No. 1 seed as soon as Sunday.
- New York most likely faces the Red Sox in the Wild Card Series, where Boston's three quality lefty starters (Jake Bennett, Ranger Suárez, Payton Tolle) and shutdown lefty relief tandem (Aroldis Chapman, Erik Miller) make right-handed pop critical — a problem with Judge's status uncertain.
- Despite playing most of the season without Judge, the Yankees own the AL's best run differential (+143) and allow the fewest runs per game in baseball (3.68), but cracks are forming: Gerrit Cole has surrendered 8 home runs in his last three starts, Max Fried's velocity is down post-bone bruise, and Cy Young frontrunner Cam Schlittler sits at a career-high 184⅔ innings.
- Judge is not the Yankees' only health concern — center fielder Trent Grisham (Grade 2 hamstring strain, out since Sept. 4) is nearing a return, while second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. (jammed thumb, out since Sept. 8) is expected back when the team returns home next week.
Why it matters: The Yankees' championship path runs through pitching — allowing the fewest runs per game in baseball — but losing Judge shrinks their already-thin margin against a Red Sox club loaded with left-handed arms. With Grisham and Chisholm also banged up and Cole, Fried, and Schlittler showing fatigue, New York enters October thinner on both sides of the ball than its 89-64 record suggests.
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