NEW YORK -- Aaron Judge underwent a re-imaging procedure on his fractured right rib during the All-Star break that revealed signs of healing, but not yet enough to clear the Yankees captain for resumption of baseball activities.
Judge had the imaging performed on Wednesday. He is believed to have sustained the injury in late April and has not played since May 31.
“There’s some progress, some healing going on, but it’s not fully healed,” Judge said on Friday at Yankee Stadium. “We’re still waiting on one more doctor to take a look at it and see how we progress forward the next couple of weeks, but it’s definitely a positive sign that we’re seeing some healing.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on Saturday that Dr. Gregory Pearl, a Dallas-based specialist, weighed in on the results. Pearl agreed with an initial assessment made by Dr. Christopher Ahmad, the Yankees’ team physician, according to Boone.
“There’s healing going on, which is good, but he’s still not able to start any baseball activities or anything,” Boone said. “He needs to get to a point where he’s asymptomatic, where you really start ramping up more upper-body stuff. The good news is, the pain is subsiding somewhat over the last couple weeks and changing from that sharp [pain] to more dull.”
Because of the injury, Judge said he has been limited to lower-body work and neck exercises, with no upper-body or overhead lifting.
“It is feeling better,” Judge said. “There were a couple of weeks that were tough and I really couldn’t do a lot, but now I’m feeling 10 times better. That was my big complaint: If I’m feeling better, how about we start moving? But I think they just don’t want to start adding baseball activities and all of a sudden we have a setback that pushes everything back.”
The Yankees have consistently said they expect Judge to return during the regular season, though it’s unclear what a realistic target date might be. Sometime in mid-to-late August appears to be a best-case scenario, but September can’t be ruled out, either.
“We’ll just continue to wait and let it heal,” Boone said. “I feel good about the fact that he’ll be back, but it’s just a matter of when. Obviously, we all want Aaron Judge back in the lineup.”
Asked if he is confident he will return this season, Judge said, “Yeah, definitely. I don’t see why I wouldn’t.”
Whenever that green light does arrive, Judge said he doesn’t expect to need the equivalent of a full Spring Training to prepare.
“I hate rehab games, so I’ve got to talk to them about all that,” Judge said. “Why waste at-bats in a rehab game? So we’ll see.”
Judge traces the rib fracture to a diving attempt on April 26 against the Astros in Houston. He continued playing through the injury for more than a month, with his discomfort becoming evident during a late May series against the Athletics in Sacramento.
The American League’s reigning Most Valuable Player, Judge is batting .248/.375/.533 with 17 home runs and 38 RBIs in 59 games this season. He said it has been difficult to remain patient.
“It’s been the worst. I want to play,” Judge said. “That’s why I’m here; that’s why I get paid, to play big games for the Yankees.”