NEW YORK — The Yankees placed captain Aaron Judge on the 10-day injured list Monday, delivering a big blow to a team currently sitting in last place.
Judge is dealing with a mild right hip strain, an injury the Yankees have been patient with. The IL move is retroactive to Friday, when the star outfielder first missed time. He is eligible to be activated for the May 8 series opener against the Oakland Athletics. To replace Judge, the Yankees called up outfielder Franchy Cordero.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said the team wanted to keep a big-picture mindset when thinking about Judge’s health this season.
“We don’t want to put him in a position to where he goes out and compromises somewhere else and the injury becomes something else or worse,” Boone said. “That’s the biggest thing.”
Judge underwent an MRI on his hip after feeling a “grab” on Thursday. He has not participated in any baseball activities since he was removed from Thursday’s game.
The injury stems from Wednesday, when Judge awkwardly slid into third base while trying to steal against the Minnesota Twins. The slide caused concern within the Yankees given Judge’s $360 million contract, with Boone urging the outfielder to slide feet first.
Given Judge’s reliance on his hips to generate his power stroke, the team wanted to be cautious in managing this injury.
“I think Aaron’s also being realistic, too,” Boone said. “He understands what’s at stake and that it’s important, so we’re having real conversations. I don’t want to close the door. If he’s ready to play in a couple of days, then so be it. But we also want to understand where we are in the season, whatever 130 games to go, and obviously how important he is. We want to make sure we’re in a good spot there.”
Through 26 games this season, Judge is hitting .261/.352/.511 with six homers, 14 RBIs and 0.9 WAR.
Judge, a four-time All-Star and the reigning American League MVP, is on the injured list for the seventh time since making his debut in 2016. He stayed healthy last year and hit an AL-record 62 home runs, batting .311 with 131 RBIs, tying the New York Mets‘ Pete Alonso for the major league lead.
Judge has missed 156 games on the injured list since 2016: the final 18 games of 2016 with a strained right oblique, 45 in 2018 with a broken right wrist after being hit by a pitch from the Kansas City Royals‘ Jakob Junis, 54 in 2019 with a strained left oblique, two stints totaling 30 games in 2020 with a strained right calf and nine games in 2021 on the COVID IL.
There could be outfield reinforcements coming soon for the injury-riddled Yankees. Boone said outfielder Harrison Bader (strained left oblique) could return before this weekend’s series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
But the Yankees also received some bad news for the bullpen Monday, shutting down reliever Jonathan Loaisiga for three to six weeks so he can undergo surgery Tuesday to remove a bone spur.
While Loaisiga has been on the IL since April 8 with elbow inflammation, a visit to team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad revealed a more serious injury.
“It wasn’t bothering him throwing and then he came in and had the swelling, which they think is related to that spur,” Boone said. “So they gotta get that outta there.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.