BALTIMORE — Aaron Judge is admittedly still not at 100 percent.
But even a decent fraction of the reigning AL MVP is better than most, and once Judge was given the assurance that the torn ligament in his big right toe had healed enough to not be at serious risk of reinjuring it, all parties involved cleared him for takeoff.
For the first time since June 3, Judge was back in the Yankees lineup on Friday, batting second and serving as DH after being activated from the injured list in time for a critical series against the Orioles at Camden Yards.
“That was always my biggest concern was coming back too early when it’s not fully stable and reinjuring it even worse,” Judge said before Friday’s game. “I didn’t want to come back and make it worse and then this is something that leads into next year and the following years. So we’re at a point where, talking with a couple doctors, the ligament’s stable. The last couple MRIs didn’t really show much healing, but this one [earlier this week] did. We’re in a good spot right now.”
So long as Judge steers clear of any more concrete ledges like the one at Dodger Stadium, where he suffered the initial injury, the Yankees don’t believe playing through the toe issue will make it severely worse.
“Anytime you go out there, you’re taking some risks because things could happen, but there is a feeling that it would take another dramatic incident to hurt it as opposed to the basic wear and tear,” manager Aaron Boone said.
Because Judge skipped a rehab assignment, the Yankees will build his workload back up cautiously.
But the slugger insisted that the two simulated games he played in on Tuesday and Wednesday in Tampa were enough to show him he was ready to rejoin the Yankees.
“If I’m able to do that, I’m able to play in the big leagues,” Judge said. “I’ve done rehab assignments where I might not see a pitch to hit all game and I might not get a fly ball all game. But in this situation [with sim games], we were able to control it a little better and stress it a little bit and see where we’re at.”
Judge will wear a protective covering on his right foot in the batter’s box, joking that the last thing he needed was to be hit on the toe by a back-foot slider.
“It’s feeling alright, feeling good,” he said. “It’s not 100 percent. I don’t think it’ll be 100 percent till the end of the year. I think our biggest goal was just getting to a point where I can play, I can tolerate it. Go out there and play back-to-back games, play in the field, run the bases, do all that, and I think we’ve gotten to that point.”
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