Aaron Judge’s elbow problem first cropped up during a visit to Toronto and it was noticeable in the first game after the All-Star break.
In one of the many ugly performances the Yankees endured in their tumble from first place and Judge was throwing gingerly in a 12-5 loss to the Phillies. A day later he was on the injured list with a right flexor strain in his elbow that revealed a strain and not a tear.
The strain meant Judge would spend the necessary time on the injured list but it also meant an unknown return date to playing right field on a regular basis. Judge’s progression to getting back in the field seemed to trickle along and on Aug. 24 before the Yankees avoided a four-game sweep by the Red Sox, Judge was seen doing some throwing to bases for the first time.
It was not strenuous and did not last much more than five minutes. It was just Judge throwing to a cutoff man positioned behind second base but offered little clarity about his return to defense.
“Brutal,” Judge said about not playing the outfield on Aug. 24. “I’m a ballplayer. I want to play both sides of the ball. I want to be out there making plays on defense, helping my team out. I know hitting’s important and all that, but I feel like I can impact the team on both sides. I can’t wait to get back out there.”
After the Yankees won two of three in Houston to start their gauntlet of 12 straight against current playoff teams, Judge was in the lineup and playing right field. He caught two balls but it also apparent he was not throwing at 100 percent, warming up with a bullpen catcher at short distance.
In the first inning as the Blue Jays wore down the Yankees by putting balls in play and fouling off pitches, Judge was tested for the first time on a single by Nathan Lukes. Lukes dropped his hit in front of Judge and Daulton Varsho was on second, a normal situation where he would stop at third because of Judge’s strong arm at full health.
Instead, Judge made a 67.9 mph toss to Jazz Chisholm Jr. playing the cutoff man and Varsho scored on an easy slide without a throw, which is something the Blue Jays seemed willing to do because of the unknown as noted by manager John Schneider when someone asked about it.
“Going into it I know it’s his first game back in the outfield and there was a little bit of unknown with how he was going to respond,” Schneider said. “He’s got a great arm. At that point it’s Varsh (Varsho) at second, so you don’t really know because he can run but we want him to test it. And I think Carlos (third base coach Carlos Febles) did a good job of sending him there no problem.
“So I didn’t really have an opinion. He’s a very, very talented player. So if he’s in the outfield you assume he’s going to be the normal version of himself.”
While Schneider was expressing his feelings about the unknown state of Judge’s normally rocket arm, the Yankees seemed weary about answering these kind of inquiries.
“He’s in position to make the throw,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’re handling it how we handle it.”
Another vague comment was followed by another when Judge described his mindset of letting the cutoff man try to handle it.
“Get it in,” Judge said. “Get it to the cutoff man. Let him do his thing,”
A little over 12 hours later, the Yankees were still discussing it since Judge was back to being the designated hitter and Giancarlo Stanton was sitting out. It seemed the Yankees are content to build low expectations for Judge’s arm until he can return to full strength and that seems to be an unknown time.
“Right now [it is]. We worked [on it] the last couple of weeks,” Boone said Saturday morning. If you guys were paying attention, we worked on different creative cuts and stuff like that. We’ll continue to do that and hopefully evolve it as we go.”
About three and a half hours later, Cody Bellinger made the kind of throw Judge was seemingly incapable of making. He unleashed a 95.3 mph one-hop throw from right field in one motion to get Bo Bichette on a close play.
It continued a year of defensive highlights for Bellinger, who is excelling in all three outfield positions and made a game-ending catch in right field on April 16 to beat the Royals and shoestring catch in left field to beat the Mets on July 6.
And while Stanton did respectable work in his first foray in the outfield in nearly two years, he has limitations and cannot play there every day as much as the Yankees would be tempted given his success with the bat (.287 average, .309 with runners in scoring position)
Until the Yankees provide clearer insight into Judge’s condition they will be doing the balancing act of playing Stanton, a compromised two-time MVP and a standout defender at any outfield position while attempting to track down the AL East or get homefield advantage as a wild-card team.