As you might have heard, the New York Yankees have never won a World Series with Aaron Judge on the roster. Soon, we will find out if they begin their next step toward the Fall Classic without him.
Judge is working his way back from the calf injury he suffered in September after missing all but seven games this season due to an unrelated rib injury. With the Yankees preparing to take on the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday, many are wondering whether the slugger will be on the roster. It's no small matter.
The Yankees' pitching rotation is stacked, but their lineup is a mishmash. The roster is filled with players who are best served as designated hitters -- in that they can't play any position, not because they possess fearsome bats.
So Judge's presence on the ALDS roster would be series-altering. Saturday would be rather early for a return given the three-week timeline to recover from a calf injury. But midweek would be right on target, and would give the Yankees a jolt in the middle of the series. As of Friday afternoon, the Yankees had yet to commit to whether Judge would be on the roster.
The Rays claimed the No. 1 seed with the AL's best record, but the Yankees are fairly evenly matched with them. The Yankees went 6-7 against the Rays this season and their rotation of Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Cam Schlittler and Carlos Rodon is superior to Tampa's, although the strength of the Rays' pitching is in how manager Kevin Cash deploys his arms based on matchups. The Yankees' Ben Rice and the Rays' Junior Caminero and Yandy Diaz line up as the best hitters in the series in Judge's absence, but if Judge is able to go, he might tip the balance in New York's favor.