New York Yankees fans have enjoyed the 2024 Major League Baseball season. Juan Soto has delivered in spades, the pitching staff has been great, and the team has the best record in MLB. Still, they’ve done all that without reigning Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole, who is returning to the Yankees on Wednesday.
But as Cole returns, another star is leaving. At least… temporarily.
After injuring his hand on Tuesday night, Aaron Judge is out of the Yankee lineup Wednesday night. According to manager Aaron Boone, the 2022 AL MVP is ‘day-to-day’ with that hand injury.
YES Network’s Meredith Marakovits reported the news on Judge’s status for the evening, which included an update on his prognosis.
“Aaron Judge is not in tonight’s lineup,” Marakovits wrote. “Boone said he considers him day-to-day.”
Aaron Judge is not in tonight’s lineup … Boone said he considers him day to day. Said Judge’s hand is still pretty sore but noted he that he took some swings in the cage today #yankees
— Meredith Marakovits (@M_Marakovits) June 19, 2024
Judge is one of MLB’s best, and caught absolute fire over the last two months. His presence in the lineup is unmistakable and incredibly valuable. So for the Yankees, who own the best record in the league, a short-term absence is absolutely the preferred option.
Yankee fans who learned the news Wednesday were a bit bristled, but optimism remains.
Once again, I beseech Yankees fans to look at what just happened with Juan Soto’s elbow injury before you panic. It’s fine to rest these guys after a scare and doesn’t mean they’re inevitably doomed. https://t.co/T2o9lqbAqf
— Pinstripe Alley (@pinstripealley) June 19, 2024
People will overreact to this but I think it’s more important that they don’t rush him right back into it https://t.co/p8AYYToMWH
— Dom (@BronxBmbrz) June 19, 2024
Looks to be same situation as Soto, might miss a couple games then he’ll be back at it this weekend I hope #Yankees https://t.co/hXL9nObptn
— 𝓚𝓮𝓷𝓷𝔂 (@Kennyyylol) June 19, 2024
Not surprised i would’ve actually been more surprised if he was in the lineup https://t.co/GYu7M62qhQ
— 🌸Erin🌸 (@ErinLovesNYY) June 19, 2024
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022