The New York Yankees recently got Aaron Judge back from a rib injury, but after just seven games, he is headed back to the injured list.
The Yankees will place Judge on the 10-day injured list with a calf strain on Saturday. Judge exited Wednesday's game early with a lower leg injury. After the game, he noted that he did not think the injury was serious.
"Stuck out there for a couple innings," Judge said to reporters after Wednesday's game. "Especially going into an off day tomorrow, I didn't think it was smart to push it too much here. Like I said, I didn't want to cost the team down the road, as that game was going."
Well, it turns out the injury was serious enough to warrant a stint on the injured list. Now, the Yankees are back to where they were a few weeks ago when it comes to their lineup.
Judge returned to the Yankees lineup after a more than three-month absence, but chose to do so without a rehab assignment. That move, in hindsight, now looks like a huge mistake. There's no way to know whether a rehab stint would have prevented this, but it certainly would have allowed Judge to slow down that ramp-up.
Judge hit .174 in his seven games back with the Yankees. His timing was not quite right, which is not a huge surprise after an extended absence. However, now the bigger concern is whether he will be back at all for a postseason run. When he goes on the injured list on Saturday, he won't be eligible to return until the final game of the regular season.