Is back as well

anything he did specific, or one thing, I think it was just the gradual kind of the workload probably swinging a lot (and) doing a lot of cage work and things like that that just kind of led to some soreness that he developed over time,” Boone said. “But I don’t think there was any one thing to find.”

Judge’s history of injuries contributed to the team making a major shakeup of their health, training and rehab staff. Before the 2020 season, after having a record 30 players go on the injured list in 2019, they hired celebrity baseball trainer Eric Cressey to oversee their performance department. There was a lot of talk, based on an interview Cressey did, that the trainer had helped Judge change up his offseason routine this winter in hopes of staying healthy.

Part of it was dealing with workload and cutting down on swings between games.

“I mean, those are things that he’s actually done over the last couple years. I think he’s been a little more judicious about some of the amounts of swings, the amount of reps that (he) takes,” Boone said. He added that Judge is trying to work smarter.

Judge has had injuries force him to miss significant time in each of the last three seasons. He has played in 242 out of 384 regular season games in that time. The 28-year-old, who is making $10.18 million this season and under team control for one more season before becoming a free agent, is clearly frustrated by having to answer questions about his health.