Yankees' Aaron Boone delivers another positive Aaron Judge update

For the second time this week, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone delivered a positive update regarding the recovery of slugger Aaron Judge.

"He was in the pool yesterday, he’s able to do more balancing and strength things, things he wasn’t really able to do at all four or five days ago," Boone said about Judge ahead of Thursday's home series finale versus the Seattle Mariners, as shared by Max Goodman of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. "Still going slowly, but I feel like real progress." 

According to Goodman, Judge could resume throwing and light hitting as soon as the end of this week. 

Boone said Tuesday that Judge had experienced "a little bit of a breakthrough" after the reigning American League Most Valuable Player received a second platelet-rich plasma injection for the ligament sprain and contusion on his big right toe which he suffered when he completed a highlight-reel catch during a road matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 3. The 31-year-old hasn't played since that contest and the Yankees had gone 4-8 without the four-time All-Star before earning back-to-back victories over the Mariners this week.

Fears that Judge may remain sidelined through the All-Star break won't disappear following Boone's latest comments, but there is at least some hope that the captain could return to the lineup before the middle of July. 

As noted by ESPN stats, Judge entered Thursday night still sitting sixth in all of MLB with 19 home runs on the season despite his absences. He was batting .291 with 40 RBI and a 1.078 OPS across 49 games before his latest setback. 

As for the third-place Yankees, New York went into the game versus Seattle trailing the first-place Tampa Bay Rays by nine-and-a-half games in the AL East standings. The surprising Baltimore Orioles occupy second place in the division, just five games back of the Rays.