The New York Yankees will reportedly place Aaron Judge on the injured list on Saturday with a calf strain, seriously putting his postseason availability in doubt.
Judge will be ineligible to return until the final game of the regular season. If his injury is minor and the Yankees are just being cautious, he should be good to go for the postseason. However, what will the Yankees do if Judge is ready for the postseason but not quite ready to play in the field?
It's very possible that if Judge is healthy enough to swing a bat that the Yankees will slot him in as the designated hitter. Even if his timing is not quite back, he's still Aaron Judge, and the Yankees are not going to keep him out of a postseason lineup if he can play. If Judge is in the lineup as the designated hitter, it creates a huge lineup shuffle for Aaron Boone.
Cody Bellinger, Heliot Ramos and Spencer Jones will likely man the outfield, but Judge serving as the designated hitter could have a bigger impact on the infield. Ben Rice has been serving as the Yankees' designated hitter, with Luis Garcia Jr. at first base.
Garcia has started all but seven games since the Yankees got him, and he has been great. He has a .285 batting average with seven home runs as a Yankee. 32 of his appearances have come at first base, but if Judge is serving as the designated hitter, Rice would go to first base. Garcia is too good a hitter to be out of the lineup, so the Yankees may have to move him to second base. Garcia played 129 games at second base last year, and has 508 career appearances there.
If Garcia is at second base, the Yankees then have to make a decision with Jazz Chisholm Jr., Anthony Volpe and Ryan McMahon. McMahon is not a good hitter, but plays great defense at third base. Volpe has been a terrible hitter for most of his career, but he is hitting .348 since being recalled after his demotion in August. The Yankees had Volpe play some third base during his demotion.
Chisholm has experience at third base in the big leagues and started games there for the Yankees in the 2024 run to the World Series. He has not had the best year offensively, but has turned things around in the last month. Since Aug. 4, Chisholm has a .832 OPS. The only problem is that he is also on the injured list, and if he does not get some in-game at-bats before the postseason, there will be no way to know if he is ready to go for the postseason.
Ultimately, the Yankees simply have to wait and see where Judge and Chisholm are with their injuries when the postseason rolls around.