Aaron Judge wants to play in the wild-card round — will the Yankees include him on the roster?
· Yahoo Sports
NEW YORK — Aaron Judge would like to play baseball. That much is clear.
Whether the New York Yankees include their leading man on the upcoming wild-card roster is a much hazier situation.
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Judge has not seen game action since Sept. 16, sidelined due to a right calf strain. Before that ailment emerged, Judge missed three months due to a stress fracture in his rib. He returned on Sept. 8, went a lackluster 4-for-23, hurt the calf and went right back on the shelf. As such, his status for New York’s best-of-three playoff showdown with the Boston Red Sox has been a story of great intrigue across the tri-state area.
On Monday, beneath a glum, pewter sky, Judge and the Yankees went through the typical pre-postseason series workout. The three-time MVP took four or five rounds of light batting practice on the field. He uncharacteristically flared a ball foul into the seats. He also clobbered one over the wall in deep left-center. To an amateur’s eye, he looked like a physically compromised version of Aaron Judge, though it’s impossible to make a complete diagnosis from 30 swings against a soft-tossing coach.
About a half-hour later, Judge stepped in for a live at-bat against an up-down reserve hurler named Elmer Rodríguez. Teammates and team officials filed into the home dugout to watch. Rap music bounced from the stadium speakers. Skipper Aaron Boone perched in his usual spot, arms slung over the railing. Media members gathered in the seats behind home plate. The yard bubbled with anticipation as the Yankees’ most important character dug his spikes into the box.
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Then Judge saw five pitches and swung at none of them, drawing himself a “walk” back to the dugout. He returned minutes later for another plate appearance, this time against southpaw Ryan Weathers. Judge drew another free pass, though not before swinging through a down-and-in breaking ball. His third at-bat finished with a well-struck bounder that ricochetted off Rodríguez’s glove. His fourth at-bat was, again, swingless.
Little learned, little gained. Judge’s status, as of Monday evening, is unchanged. Nobody will know anything for certain until full rosters are released Tuesday morning.
"I'm feeling great,” Judge told reporters before the workout. “Been doing a lot of work back there to try to get back as soon as I can. Been swinging it for a couple days. Moving around. Excited to get on the field today to see what we can do."
"He's making progress," Boone said earlier in the day. “We'll continue to see where he's at.”
While it seems incredibly unlikely that Judge, who, as of Monday morning, had yet to run the bases, would be capable of playing right field on Tuesday, both player and manager refused to rule out the possibility. Still, given Judge’s reduced state, it’s difficult to envision him galloping around the Yankee Stadium outfield. If he plays against Boston, expect it to be as a DH or pinch hitter.
Even that possibility raises its own set of questions. Between Ben Rice, Paul Goldschmidt and Luis García Jr., the Yankees’ roster is overflowing with first base/DH types. The potential return of Giancarlo Stanton, out since April due to calf issues of his own, would further cloud that picture. Stanton also took live at-bats Monday, one of which ended with a vintage Stantonian laser to shortstop.
Considering how both goliaths looked and Stanton’s long history of slugging through various maladies, Stanton seems like a more viable pinch-hit option at this point. Carrying Judge on the roster over a defensively useful character such as Amed Rosario might be foolish if Judge is a diminished version of himself. There’s also the potential for a more significant injury; Judge’s calf muscle could theoretically give way and put his Achilles at risk. Giving the future Hall of Famer a few more days of rest and hoping the rest of the roster can eke past the Red Sox might yield the Yankees’ best chance of getting the slugger back closer to full strength later in October.
Judge, surely, would disagree with that assessment. His approach thus far has been both delusional and admirable, featuring hubris and grit, teetering between irresponsibility and resilience. It’s difficult to envision the Yankees playing a postseason game without him. He certainly can’t. That’s part of why, at every turn, Judge has remained publicly adamant that he’ll be physically able to participate in the wild-card round.
But what Judge wants is secondary to what the Yankees decide is best. The captain’s self-confident, grit-it-out-at-all-costs schtick matters only if Boone, GM Brian Cashman, the medical staff and the other pinstriped powers-that-be buy into it.
Judge is willing. Able is a different thing entirely.