Yankees place Aaron Judge on 10-day IL as slugger avoids worst

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The New York Yankees placed Aaron Judge on the 10-day injured list on Sunday with a right flexor strain as fears were calmed over speculation that the injury could have been more serious.

An MRI showed that Judge did not have any acute damage to his ulnar collateral ligament, which would have likely required Tommy John surgery and an extended stay on the IL. He missed just his second game of the season as the team lost to the Philadelphia Phillies.

He had a platelet-rich plasma injection, and he could return to action anywhere from 10 to 14 days.

“You never want to go in the tube. It’s never fun. You don’t know what’s going to show up,” Judge said. “That’s why I kind of pushed off a lot of that imaging and stuff like that, because if I don’t know what’s going on, it can’t hurt you, I guess.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone breathed a sigh of relief.

“All in all, we got good news today,” he said. “I think all of us kind of feared the worst.”

Judge admitted to Boone on Friday that he had been having trouble throwing past 60 feet.

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“We’re going up against a Phillies team, they can hit the ball over the park. I just didn’t want to put our pitchers in jeopardy, just not be able to come up and make a play for them,” he said.

The roster decision was retroactive to Saturday, and the Yankees traded for Amed Rosario, who the team acquired in a deal with the Washington Nationals, to take his spot.

Judge was putting together another MVP-like season. He won the American League MVP last season and in 2022.

This year, Judge is leading the majors in batting average (.342), on-base percentage (.449), slugging percentage (.711), OPS (1.160) and hits (129). He has 37 home runs and 85 RBI.