Yankees' Aaron Judge shares alarming injury update

New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge sounds no closer to returning from his lingering toe injury than he was before he began hitting off a tee.

"It doesn’t feel great," Judge said about the toe ahead of the Tuesday afternoon game against the Baltimore Orioles, per Dan Martin of the New York Post. "I don’t think it will ever feel normal. I can move around pretty well, but any injury, [it can bother you for] a year or two or three years. You never know what it’s gonna feel like." 

Judge wants to avoid surgery, if possible, until at least the offseason so that he can play again during the ongoing campaign. The reigning American League Most Valuable Player last featured for the Yankees when he suffered a torn ligament in his big right toe in a win on June 3 that improved the club to 35-25. New York started Tuesday at 47-38 and was trailing the first-place Tampa Bay Rays by nine games in the AL East standings at that time. 

Judge acknowledged he hasn't yet resumed running as part of his recovery. 

"I’ve got to be able to run," he explained. "If I can run, then I can play. But me running at 10 percent isn’t helping anybody." 

There remains no timeline for when Judge may return, but it's clear he'll stay sidelined through the All-Star break that begins for the Yankees after this coming Sunday's game against the Chicago Cubs. New York opens the second half of the season at the Colorado Rockies on July 14. 

"I’m doing anything I can to speed the process up," Judge insisted. 

Across 49 games this season, Judge is batting .291 with 19 home runs and 40 RBIs. According to ESPN stats, he'd be leading all of MLB with a 1.078 OPS if he was among qualified players as of Tuesday afternoon.