Yankees manager discusses severity of Aaron Judge injury

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone insists a sprain isn't all that different than a tear regarding the toe injury slugger Aaron Judge is dealing with early this summer. 

"It’s a grade of a strain, which is a tear," Boone said about the setback during the latest edition of the "Talkin' Yanks" podcast, per John Healy of Audacy. "We can get into the semantics of all of it." 

Judge last played when he suffered what was initially called a ligament sprain and contusion on his big right toe on June 3, and the reigning American League Most Valuable Player raised eyebrows this past Saturday when he revealed he has a torn ligament in the toe. On Sunday, Jon Heyman of the New York Post noted that Judge's update wasn't "at all a change in the original diagnosis of a sprained right great toe, no matter how many headlines it made." 

There is no official timetable for Judge's potential return to the big-league lineup. Heyman added one Yankees person "guessed" the 31-year-old could play a week or two after the All-Star break that begins on July 10, but the MLB insider was also sure to point out that may be "wishful thinking." 

Boone indicated the Yankees simply don't know when Judge will be good to go. 

"There’s just sometimes, with medical things, sometimes there’s gray areas to it," Boone explained. "Sometimes it’s cut-and-dry. 'He’s got a grade 2 hamstring.' …it’s cut and dry and you have a really good idea of what that takes to heal and timelines. … When there’s some grayness there, I don’t like to throw out some broad guess."

The Yankees (43-35) went 8-10 but won four of their last six games during Judge's latest stint on the injured list heading into Tuesday's series opener at the 20-60 Oakland Athletics. New York began the night's MLB action holding a wild-card playoff spot and trailing the first-place Tampa Bay Rays by nine-and-a-half games in the AL East standings.