Aaron Judge likely to make return to Yankees on Friday
Explore More
At long last, after nearly eight weeks of uncertainty, Aaron Judge’s return is on the Yankees’ horizon.
Barring a late setback, the Yankees plan to activate Judge this weekend in Baltimore, likely in time for Friday’s series opener against the Orioles, The Post’s Joel Sherman reported Wednesday.
After two straight days of playing in simulated games at the Yankees’ player development complex in Tampa, Judge flew back to New York on Wednesday night.
Assuming he checks out healthy enough Thursday, he is expected to rejoin the Yankees for what will be his first game back since June 3, when he slammed his foot into a concrete ledge at Dodger Stadium while making a terrific catch and tearing a ligament in his right big toe.
It remains to be seen just how productive Judge can be at the plate while playing through some pain for the rest of the season — which he has acknowledged he will have to do — but the Yankees could sorely use whatever they can get from the reigning AL MVP as they try to make a run to get back into a playoff spot.
“We definitely need him,” Anthony Rizzo said on Wednesday before the Yankees’ 3-1 win over the Mets. “Just for him to be him and the morale, it’s like acquiring [a top player]. Hopefully he comes back and just gets right back to it.”
The Yankees finished Wednesday 19-23 since Judge last played a game, going from the third AL wild card to 2¹/₂ games out of the final playoff spot.
Their offense has become a shell of itself without Judge — averaging just 3.9 runs per game — but the Yankees are banking on his return and their veteran bats snapping out of funks to turn their season around.
“He’s arguably the best player in the game,” Carlos Rodon said. “It would definitely be nice to have that bat [back]. That’s our captain, that’s our leader, so it’s going to be great to get him back.”
Judge, who is expected to split time between DH and right field upon his return, is set to be activated without going on a rehab assignment despite missing nearly two months of action.
He spent Tuesday and Wednesday getting at-bats in simulated games against Jonathan Loaisiga and other minor league arms.
Manager Aaron Boone was not ready to confirm the plan for Judge to be back in his lineup Friday, but he left the door open.
“I wouldn’t rule anything out, but we’re kind of taking it day by day and huddling up at the end of the day and seeing what the next steps are,” Boone said. “But right now, it’s seeing how he came out of today and how that went and where we’re at and if we need to keep doing more.”
Tuesday, Judge got four or five at-bats in five innings of a simulated game and hit a home run.
The Yankees’ captain did not get any action in right field, which the Yankees were hoping to change Wednesday, “even if it meant getting fungoes and moving him side to side,” Boone said.
A timeline for Judge’s potential return has been shrouded in mystery since he sustained the injury.
He received a pair of platelet-rich plasma injections along the way to help alleviate the pain before beginning baseball activities June 28 in Oakland, when he began playing catch.
By the early days of July, Judge began hitting off a tee and running on an anti-gravity treadmill before he took his first on-field batting practice July 14, the day the Yankees opened the second half of the season in Denver.
Sunday marked the first day Judge faced live pitching, when he squared off against Loaisiga in live batting practice at Yankee Stadium.
Now, Judge’s pending return will come during a critical stretch for the Yankees, four days ahead of the MLB trade deadline while starting a stretch playing three teams ahead of them in the playoff chase — the Orioles, Rays and Astros.
ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3R7j3Bma25flq6zu81moa6cl5p6p7XNmqOlsV2nsrXB0aegp59dqbxuxcCnop6do2K8r3nFq6Cdmalk