The Yankees are one painful week without Aaron Judge down and a to-be-determined amount to go.
Just how long the reigning AL MVP will miss with a sprained right big toe remains a 6-foot-7, 282-pound-sized question mark. Manager Aaron Boone has insisted over the past week that the Yankees would not have an accurate timetable until the swelling in Judge’s toe dissipated, which remains a work in progress.
“There’s still a bunch of stuff going on in there,” Judge said at his locker late Sunday night as the Yankees digested a second straight series loss without him. “But improvements each day, which has been a good sign. No step backs or any holdups. We’re on the right track.
“Things like this take time. It’s just such a unique situation. If it was like a hamstring or something with the shoulder, there’s a little better foundation to know when to come back. We’ll be back.”
When that happens, though, remains something of a mystery. In the short term, it means the Yankees will enter Tuesday’s Subway Series without Judge, just like the Mets will be without their own top slugger, Pete Alonso, who is expected to be out for 3-4 weeks because of a bone bruise and a sprain of his left wrist.
It is clear that the Yankees are treating Judge’s injury cautiously and will not rush him back before he is fully ready. They know all too well how a nagging big right toe injury can sap a right-handed hitter’s productivity. It happened last season with DJ LeMahieu, and while their injuries are different — LeMahieu’s was a fractured sesamoid bone in his right big toe and ligament damage to his second toe — Judge realizes how crucial that body part is to hitting.
“Definitely it’s concerning,” he said. “I’ve talked to DJ a lot about how he felt. It’s a different part of the toe, but it’s still the big toe, which is where all your force and power comes from. So that’s why we’re going to be smart with it and do what we need to do.”
As of Sunday night, Judge said he had “no idea” when he might be able to start baseball activities.
“I wouldn’t want to give a number and throw anything out there because then it’ll be just like when I broke my wrist in ’18 and if I’m not back in two weeks, then people start asking questions,” Judge said.
In 2018, the Yankees initially said Judge would not be able to swing a bat for approximately three weeks, but his broken wrist did not heal as quickly as expected and he ended up missing seven weeks.
This time around, Judge wants to avoid being pinned to a specific time frame.
“I think it’s all based on pain,” he said. “It’s a good sign that it’s feeling better every single day. I don’t think there’s a need for a timeline.”
In the meantime, the Yankees need much more help from their top bats in Judge’s absence after going 3-4 in their first seven games without him.
Since Judge has been out of the lineup, Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson, Gleyber Torres and LeMahieu have combined to hit .109 (11-for-101) with five extra-base hits and a .448 OPS.
The unlikely outfield alignments involving Billy McKinney, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Willie Calhoun and Jake Bauers have actually been solid — combining to hit .260 with 10 extra-base hits and a .777 OPS.
Rizzo’s slump, in particular, has hurt. The veteran first baseman, who was the Yankees’ most consistent bat through the first two months of the season, is 0-for-22 since Judge got injured.
“He’s just going through a tough stretch right now,” Boone said. “I thought his [batting practice Sunday] was good. Hopefully Tuesday we’ll start to see some fruits of that.”