Retired Gold Glove CF sends Yankees grim Aaron Judge warning

Add retired Gold Glove center fielder Lorenzo Cain to the growing list of people warning the New York Yankees that they shouldn't make club captain Aaron Judge a full-time center fielder after the Bronx Bombers acquired All-Star Juan Soto from the San Diego Padres. 

"They paid him all this money to be a thump, so you let a thump be a stump," Cain said about Judge during the latest edition of the "Foul Territory" podcast, as shared by Sam Neumann of The Comeback. "You don’t put him in center field and have him doing all this running around, trying to catch fly balls."

Cain added that the Yankees should have Alex Verdugo or Trent Grisham serve as their Opening Day center fielder over Judge. New York landed Verdugo via a trade with the Boston Red Sox before Grisham was included as part of the Soto deal. 

As for Judge, he signed a nine-year, $360M contract last December before he dealt with a right hip strain and a torn ligament in his big right toe during the 2023 season. Former Yankees hitting coach Sean Casey and current Yankees play-by-play announcer Michael Kay previously voiced concerns about the 6-foot-7, 282-pound Judge playing center field throughout next season due to his lengthy injury history. 

Meanwhile, Cain mentioned how former teammate Whit Merrifield "started playing a lot of center" after Cain left the Kansas City Royals following the 2017 season. 

"About a month into the season, [Merrifield] texted me, 'Hey man, now I see you were coming to the dugout saying you’re tired and your feet hurt. Now I understand,'" Cain recalled. Cain also noted that "center field is very taxing on the body" for any player, let alone one the size of Judge. 

Kay suggested during Thursday's edition of "The Michael Kay Show" that Yankees senior vice president and general manager Brian Cashman could trade Verdugo and then play Grisham in center field. Whatever Cashman is and/or isn't planning, it's clear worries about Judge patrolling center field won't disappear before the new year arrives.