Superstar Aaron Judge is sidelined with a bone bruise in his rib cage. This injury comes as the slugger was already struggling through a slump.

Now, the Bronx Bombers must survive without their captain, at least for a while. Team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad confirmed the news after an MRI on Monday revealed the injury.

“It could be a couple of days, it could be longer, I don’t know for sure," Manager Aaron Boone said when asked about Judge's return timeline ahead of the game with Cleveland.

“It’s kind of based on how he’s feeling day by day. Hopefully, we avoided something serious, but we’ll have more of an idea after he meets with the doctor.”

Boone remains hopeful that the Yankees identified the issue early enough and considers it day-to-day. However, having Aaron Judge out of the lineup for too long will hurt the Yankees.

"If there’s one unshakeable truth about the Yankees and where they’re going this season, it’s that Aaron Judge has to be along for the ride. There’s no winning anything without him," noted NJ.com's Bob Klapisch.

In 2023, after Judge crashed into the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium on June 3, the Yankees went 14-17 in the next stretch without him. They hit just .218 with a .288 on-base percentage, while scoring the third-fewest runs in baseball. And last season, the team went 4-6 in his absence.

Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt, and José Caballero have all performed well this season. Yet, none of them see the same pitches when Judge is not standing in the batter's box.

Juan Soto explained the difference last year after leaving the Yankees. “It's definitely different," Soto said.

"Had the best hitter in baseball hitting behind me. I was getting more attacked and more pitches in the strike zone, less intentional walks and things like that. I was pitched differently last year,” Soto said.

How was Aaron Judge playing before the Injury?

Judge entered Tuesday with a .248/.375/.533 slash line, 17 home runs, 38 RBIs, and 10 doubles.

The 34-year-old does not recall a specific play where the discomfort started. But he spent the last few weeks managing a nagging shoulder soreness.

Playing through the discomfort was difficult. Since May 11, Judge was hitting just .206 (14-for-68) with only one home run, 8 RBIs, and 19 strikeouts. That lone home run comes against the Rays.

The discomfort peaked during the Yankees’ recent road series against the A's. Judge went just 2-for-12 with 4 RBIs in the series.

Now he joins Giancarlo Stanton on the injury list. “I don’t want to have both Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge on the IL at the same time," Joshua Diemert of Pinstripe Alley noted.

"But if a shorter, immediate stint is the best path to getting 100 percent Judge back, I’ll take that over a strained day-to-day process where they try to wait something out."

"Whatever path the Yankees end up taking, any game without No. 99 in the lineup, even if he’s a .950 OPS instead of a 1.050 OPS, is going to be felt," he added.

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Written by

Md Saife Fida

Edited by

Sagnik Bagchi