NEW YORK — Fans of the Yankees, along with Aaron Judge and his fellow players, breathed a sigh of relief Saturday upon discovering that the two-time AL MVP has a flexor strain in his right elbow without any severe damage to his ulnar collateral ligament, which could require a prolonged absence.
After having an MRI on Saturday, Judge missed only his second game of the season, with the Yankees suffering a 9-4 defeat to Philadelphia. Following a platelet-rich plasma injection, he will be placed on the injured list but aims to make a comeback in 10 days to two weeks, starting off as a designated hitter.
“Going into the MRI machine is never something you look forward to. It’s unsettling because the results are uncertain,” Judge explained. “I’ve held off on doing those scans for a while because thinking ‘what you don’t know can’t hurt you,’ I suppose.”
Judge leads the major leagues with a .342 batting average and 1.160 OPS. He has 37 home runs and 85 RBIs for a New York team that opened a seven-game AL East lead by late May but dropped a season-high 6 1/2 games back of first-place Toronto on Saturday.
“All in all, we got good news today,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I think all of us kind of feared the worst.”
Knowing how tough Judge is, Boone had been worried. Judge told Boone of throwing difficulty during Friday’s 12-5 loss to Philadelphia.
“I couldn’t throw past 60 feet,” Judge said. “We’re going up against a Phillies team, they can hit the ball over the park. I just didn’t want to put our pitchers in jeopardy, just not be able to come up and make a play for them.”
Boone received results of the scan just before the start of Saturday’s game, when team officials were getting some more evaluation. Because pain impacted his throwing but not hitting, Judge fought going on the IL.
“With that strain, then if you go out there and play with it you put the UCL in jeopardy, so we got to get that healed up,” Boone said.
Boone said it was too soon to determine whether highly regarded prospect Spencer Jones will be brought up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Judge most likely won’t throw for 10 to 14 days, then will need a few days throwing to build back arm strength before returning to the outfield.
“I really was reluctant about going on any IL or anything like that,” Judge said. “I was like, ‘If I can hit, let me hit.’” he said. “I’ll start DHing, I think, once this 10th day is up.”
Giancarlo Stanton, the team’s primary DH, will start to work out in the outfield next week in order to help fill in for Judge.
“It’s never a relief knowing he’s going to be out at all, but for what it is, I guess you could say best case,” Stanton said.
Judge said he first felt the pain in the sixth inning of Tuesday’s game at Toronto, when George Springer singled to right in the sixth inning off Jonathan Loáisiga. Judge made a strong throw home in an attempt to prevent the tying run, but Davis Schneider just beat catcher Austin Wells’ tag.
An inning later, Judge winced after catching Alejandro Kirk’s seventh-inning fly in the right-field corner and throwing to second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. as Dante Bichette tagged up and went from second to third. Judge was seen by a YES Network camera clenching his right hand in a fist.
“He’s about as tough as they come and for him to even show any vulnerability or pain or whatever,” Boone said. “I knew we had an issue probably. And so any time you can fear the worst with that, but that’s why you wait to react, though. … We got the MRI and got a clear diagnosis with it.”
