Yankees expect short IL stint for Aaron Judge

The New York Yankees managed to share some positive news with fans amid a frustrating slump. 

According to Max Goodman of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters following Monday's 3-2 home loss to the Cleveland Guardians that slugger Aaron Judge is on track to come off the 10-day injured list for next Monday's game against the Oakland Athletics. It was announced before the matchup versus Cleveland got underway that Judge landed on the IL retroactive to April 28 with a right hip strain.

"It’s one thing if you’re dealing with pain or you get hit in the elbow or you get hit somewhere where it’s just a pain tolerance thing," Boone said about the decision to sit Judge through the games against Cleveland and the upcoming series at the first-place Tampa Bay Rays. "I didn’t want this to turn into something that he’s playing at 80%, 85% and compromises himself and it turns into something serious. Ultimately, that’s what I weighed in talking with him and made that decision, as hard as it was." 

Judge, the reigning American League Most Valuable Player and New York's most important figure, hasn't played since he exited a 4-2 win at the Texas Rangers on April 27 with discomfort. Without him, the Yankees have lost four straight.

On the campaign, Judge is slashing .261/.352/.511 with six home runs and 14 RBI across 26 games. Much was said this past offseason about what Judge means to the squad as the official team captain, and catcher Jose Trevino touched upon that following Monday's disheartening defeat. 

"I know he’s going to be with us every step of the way," Trevino said of Judge. "He’s going to be supporting us. That’s a tough one, but it all comes with it, man. This is a long season. This is something that teams gotta go through to see how strong they are, to see how close they are, to see how they can get through this kind of stuff. And I think we will." 

The Judge-less Yankees have fallen to 15-15 and to last place in the AL East, eight-and-a-half games back of the Rays. New York hosts 14-15 Cleveland again Tuesday evening.