New York Yankees' Aaron Judge will miss significant time after a stress fracture diagnosis.
The New York Yankees were certainly hoping for better news than this when they shut down outfielder Aaron Judge to run some tests on his discomfort. Fears of that being worse were confirmed when the Yankees announced that Judge has a stress fracture on the first rib on his right side. He is expected to return this season.
The diagnosis comes after three games Judge missed to have an MRI, CT scan, X-rays, and evaluations by multiple doctors, including Dr. Gregory Pearl, a thoracic outlet syndrome specialist in Dallas to rule that issue out, as a thoracic outlet could have taken Judge out for the season.
It offers relief to not have that outlook, but it’s still grim for New York, as while they do expect him back, it will be at least 4-6 weeks until he is re-imaged again to see how the rib is healing. Initially thought to be a bone bruise, Judge also had pain creep into his right shoulder that he only felt while swinging.
To read more about what the implications of Judge’s absence are not just this season but beyond, here is the full analysis from Yankees Roundtable writer Matthew Schmidt.
There are only 100 games remaining on New York’s schedule, and they’re hoping that Judge plays closer to his first 52 games of the season where he racked up 16 home runs while batting .275 through May 12.
Things changed significantly in the last 16 games since then, where he’s batting .180 with just one home run and a .550 OPS. It comes after a historic 2025 campaign where he looked much different, something the Yankees hope he can possibly return to before the end of this year’s one.
