SURGERY A POSSIBILITY FOR LINDEN GRAD AARON JUDGE
TAMPA, Fla. — Aaron Judge knows what is hurting him, but not exactly how they are going to fix it.
After nearly a dozen tests, the Linden High graduate and New York Yankees slugger was finally diagnosed with a “stress fracture of his first right rib,” and will rest for the next two weeks before the doctors decide if he is going to have surgery.
“Obviously a lot of tests. It’s a tough diagnosis to find. So that’s what we’re dealing with. It’s probably an injury that dates back to September when he dove,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced before Friday night’s Grapefruit League game against the Orioles at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
“Signs are that it shows signs of healing. So we’re going to give it the next couple of weeks and then we’ll retest to see how much healing is going on with that rib. We’ll do the CT scan again.”
The signs of healing give the Yankees and Judge hope that he will be able to avoid surgery. If there is no further healing on that next CT scan, Judge would have surgery to remove the rib. That is a similar surgery to players who have undergone Thoracic Outlet Surgery.
“I wouldn’t say that’s off the table, but you wouldn’t want to do that right now, especially if the bone is healing,” Boone said.
Judge has yet to hit on the field this spring dealing with what was the mysterious pain that traveled from his shoulder to chest area. He underwent multiple MRIs, a dye-contrast MRI, CT scans and examinations by doctors. Until Friday, the Yankees did not indicate that this was anything related to Judge crashing on his shoulder last September trying to catch a ball.
Judge dove to try and catch Albert Pujols’ fifthinning single on Sept. 18. He spent the rest of the inning trying to stretch the shoulder out, but remained in the game. He sat out one game, but played seven games to end the season going 8 for 25 with three homers, two doubles and a triple in 25 at-bats. He hit .264 (9 for 34) in the playoffs with one home run.
“Assuming it was in September when it happened, he was obviously able to finish the season and play and play through it, dealing with a shoulder, neck, kind of the uncertainty of exactly what it was,” Boone said. “And then he went into the offseason just thinking the rest would handle it. He was able to do all of his normal workouts in the winter _ his throwing and hitting _ and then as he got down here and really started ramping it up, especially with the hitting side of things, that’s when it was to a point where he needed to start getting some answers.”
The Yankees spent at least a month trying to figure out what was causing his discomfort after Judge arrived in Tampa.
“My understanding is it’s a hard thing to find because you’re not going to find it in MRIs or different scans. He had MRIs on shoulder, chest, bone scans, CT scan, X-rays,” Boone said, reading off a list with Judge’s tests written on it. “All these things and it was this particular CT scan that ultimately found it. It was just, for whatever reason, an injury that’s difficult to spot in kind of the normal battery of tests that you’d have.”
With Judge shut down for at least two more weeks from hitting, the reality is that Opening Day is unlikely for him, even if Boone would not rule him out.
“I know how bad they want to be out there
helping the club,” Boone said of his injured players. “We’ll handle it as a group. We’re made for dealing with adversity. Our group is very capable of handling that. We have a lot of confidence in everyone we have. We’ll tackle it head on and support our guys that are injured, and try to get them back as soon as possible.”
Judge, 27, has not had the best luck with injuries.
After hitting .329 with 30 homers in 84 games in the first half of 2017, Judge went to the All-Star Game and won the Home Run Derby, then admitted a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery had affected him in the second half.
Judge lost most of the second half of the 2018 season to a fractured wrist. After hitting 25 homers and driving in 60 runs in the first 93 games of the season, he only played in 19 in the second half. He hit two homers and drove in seven runs.
In 2019, Judge missed 54 games after straining his oblique in April.