Yankees manager Aaron Boone just announced that Aaron Judge has a stress fracture in his first right rib. Boone said the injury likely dates back to last September, and that at present, it shows signs of healing. The team is going to try to give him two weeks of rest to see if that can fix things and re-test him, but they said that surgery is not off the table.
Judge has not played at all this spring as he has been dealing with shoulder and pectoral pain. This would, it seems, explain that pain.
Judge, who won the 2017 American League Rookie of the Year award, was limited to 112 games in 2018 because of a broken right wrist and 102 games last year because of a strained left oblique. He now seems destined for another truncated season. In this he joins Giancarlo Stanton, who at the moment seems unlikely to be ready for the start of the season, Luis Severino, who will miss the while year after undergoing Tommy John surgery, James Paxton, who will miss at least a half-season due to injury, and Domingo Germán, out half the season due to his domestic violence suspension.
The 2019 Yankees made it through injury after injury and still won 103 games and the AL East title. It was seen as an amazing feat. They will have to do the amazing once again.
