Aaron Judge has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain, Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced prior to Friday’s game against the Red Sox.
Boone said that an MRI taken during Thursday’s off-day revealed what the manager characterized as a “very mild” strain, saying that he is hopeful that it will be “a pretty short stint” on the IL.
Judge’s IL assignment is retroactive to Wednesday, meaning that the earliest he could be activated would be Aug. 21 against the Mets at Citi Field.
“He wants to be out there and feels like it’s a day-to-day thing, which it very well may be,” Boone said. “It goes without saying how important a player Aaron is to us. I think it’s really important that he not go out there and hurt this thing significantly trying to play through something.”
Judge was removed for a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning of Tuesday’s game against the Braves after hitting his Major League-leading ninth home run, and he did not play in the series finale on Wednesday.
At the time, Boone said that Judge was dealing with tightness in his lower body as a result of playing four games on artificial turf this past weekend at Tropicana Field. Boone expanded upon that statement on Friday, saying that he thought Judge was moving gingerly in the outfield on Tuesday against Atlanta.
“When I took him out, it was basically my observation,” Boone said. “I didn’t consult with any trainers at that point. It was me and a couple of coaches watching him in the outfield moving around. I just felt like he wasn’t moving like he normally would, so I made the decision right there. Later that night, we dove into the treatments he’s getting, how he’s feeling. The next day we decided, OK, we need to probably go through a battery of tests with this.”
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].