Aaron Judge is on the injured list for the second time in a month, Aaron Boone just told reporters he has no idea if Judge will be ready for October, and I am supposed to believe the biggest problem facing the Yankees this September is the Tampa Bay Rays.
The New York Yankees placed Judge on the 10-day IL Saturday with a right calf strain, backdated to Thursday. He left Wednesday’s game against the Twins in the sixth inning with tightness in his lower leg, and an MRI the next day confirmed the strain. The Yankees’ entire case for 2026 was never really about outlasting Tampa Bay on a scoreboard. It was about having a healthy Judge standing in the batter’s box once the games start counting twice, and right now nobody in that organization can promise you that.
This is Judge’s second trip to the IL in about a month. He had only just returned September 8th from the same rib fracture that already cost them a seven-game losing streak, an injury that kept him off the field for more than three months of the season.
Twice in a month is a pattern, not an accident.
In the week since his return, Judge went 4-for-23 with one home run, nothing close to the middle-of-the-order monster the Yankees need. For the season he’s hitting .241 with 18 home runs and 41 RBI in 66 games, a line that says a lot more about the toll this year has taken than about who he still is when he’s actually healthy.
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Asked directly Saturday whether Judge would have a timeline for October, Aaron Boone gave the answer nobody in the Bronx wanted: “I don’t know. I don’t have a timeline on him. He’s on the IL now. I’m not going to predict anything.”
Aaron Boone won’t commit to a timeline for Judge’s return, and when your own manager stops guessing, you stop pretending you know better.
The earliest Judge can even come off this IL stint is September 27th, the final day of the regular season, with zero guarantee he’s ready then either. The Yankees also recalled infielder-outfielder Max Schuemann from Triple-A to fill the roster spot, which tells you everything about how replaceable the depth chart considers this stretch and how irreplaceable Judge actually is.
He isn’t walking through that door either. Jazz Chisholm, the same Jazz Chisholm who grabbed Judge’s bat for a go-ahead homer in June, has been out since September 10th with a sprained right thumb. Boone says he’s doing well and should be back sometime during the current homestand, which is a nice update and does nothing to fix a middle-of-the-order that’s currently missing its two most dangerous hitters.
Meanwhile, the Yankees’ race with Tampa Bay is somehow the least interesting part of this week. The Rays, who already clinched a playoff spot before anyone else in baseball, sit at 93-59, four games up on New York, with their magic number down to six and shrinking by the day. Aaron Judge’s second IL stint puts his postseason status in doubt, and the Rays control their own destiny in the AL East almost as an afterthought by comparison.
Give the New York Yankees this much credit: the rotation lined up for the four-game set against Tampa this weekend, Fried, Rodon, Cole, and Schlittler across the series, is about as strong a counterpunch as a lineup missing its best hitter can throw. That doesn’t fix October. It buys a weekend.
I’ve spent years bracing for this team to find some brand-new way to blow a big spot, and I always figured it would be the bullpen or a front-office decision, not the back of Aaron Judge’s own leg. My sister already has a group chat message loaded up making fun of me for believing in this roster again. She’s going to be right, and that’s the part I can’t get past.
