yankees Carefully Monitor Judge‘s Elbow as He Progresses in Throwing Program
The New York Yankees are navigating a delicate situation with Aaron Judge’s recovery from an elbow injury, balancing the need for his offensive power with the risk of re-injury. Judge has been limited to designated hitter duties since his return from the injured list, and the Yankees are being cautious about when he’ll return to the outfield.
The team suffered an 8th consecutive loss on Sunday,falling to the Red Sox,a result manager Aaron Boone described as ”frustrating” and “unacceptable” (ESPN,August 23,2025).Despite the team’s struggles, the focus remains on Judge’s health. He threw baseballs from approximately 150 feet on Sunday, a recent milestone in his throwing program. While acknowledging he wasn’t throwing at full strength, Judge reported feeling good.
Boone emphasized the importance of a measured approach. “Got to be mindful of it,” he said. ”he’s too crucial to us moving forward. We’re not at that point in the season where today starts or ends our season so we’ve got to, as much as we are at the home stretch and the back half of the calendar with the playoffs on the line, we still have to, within a little bit, play the long game. Especially considering, obviously, how critically important he is to the lineup.”
The Yankees also need to consider Giancarlo Stanton’s strong performance. Stanton has been hitting well since the start of July,batting .317 with 16 home runs and a 1.134 OPS over his last 38 games entering Sunday. Boone indicated a potential plan to rotate Judge,Stanton,and other players in the outfield upon Judge’s return,but a definitive plan hasn’t been established.
Judge himself expressed frustration with being limited to hitting. “I’m a ballplayer,” he said. “I want to play both sides of the ball and go out there, making plays on defense, helping my team out. I know hitting’s critically important and all that, but I feel like I can impact this team on both sides, so I can’t wait to get back out there.” He likened the post-throwing soreness to the feeling after recovering from a pulled hamstring. he is currently undergoing “quite a bit” of treatment, details of which are being managed by the training staff.
Since being activated, Judge is batting .218 with three home runs and an .804 OPS in 16 games.He maintains that his elbow has not impacted his hitting performance.
Boone reiterated the team’s priority is protecting Judge from further injury. “It’s more about trying to make sure he’s in a position to continue to heal and not hurt himself,” Boone stated. “Throwing isn’t the only part of his game that makes him really good out there. So I don’t know at what level [he’ll return to] when we initially get him back into a game. but we know we want to make sure he’s got every opportunity to be in a good position to, again, continue to heal as he goes, but also protect from injury too.”
