New York Yankees fans are bracing for the worst.

After hearing general manager Brian Cashman's latest comments on Aaron Judge, a good number of them are convinced their captain isn't putting the pinstripes back on this season.

Cashman talked with the reporters Monday, minutes after the trade deadline passed, and he didn't sugarcoat where things stand. He's still hopeful Judge returns from the stress fracture in his right first rib. But for the first time, he stopped short of promising it.

"I think that question is a fair question on anybody's side," Cashman said per ESPN's Jorge Castillo.

 "Like is that possible? It's always possible that things don't go the way you want, but we currently are still very optimistic that he's going to return. But there's challenges with all that, too. While he's returning, whenever that timeframe is, and ramping him up and getting his timing down, etc., etc. etc. So I can't rule out any of it."

Judge fractured his rib while diving for a ball against the Astros on 26 April — and tried to play through it. For a couple of weeks, it looked like he might get away with it. But at the end it caught up with him.

Over his final 16 games before going on the injured list, Judge hit .180 with one homer and a .550 OPS in 71 plate appearances.

Judge landed on the 10-day IL on June 5 and was shifted to the 60-day IL on July 18. He hasn't played since May 31 and still hasn't been cleared for any kind of baseball activities.

Cashman has said Judge's fate now comes down to the next round of imaging on the rib.

"I can only follow the guidelines so far," Cashman said, explaining that the timeline still points toward a likely return, and that it's what he, Judge and the medical staff are all "hoping and holding on to."

But he was also careful to frame the timeline as nothing gets clearer, he said, until Judge is actually cleared for physical and baseball activity. And it only happens once the reimaging shows the bone has healed enough.

Yankees fans aren't buying the optimism

"I think it has been said a thousand times, hope is not a strategy," one fan added simply.

Under an update this vague, "hope" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. And the bleachers creature has noticed it.

 Even Manager Aaron Boone and the team have admitted something similar countless times.

Even Judge said, “Yeah, definitely. I don’t see why I wouldn’t,” after his latest reimaging in mid-July when asked about whether he is confident he will return this season.

But nothing is official until Judge is cleared for actual baseball activity. Anything short of that is just hope.

That's why one fan said, "For those who speak Cashman, translate the above statement. My translation would be…
Cashman: 'I have no effin idea if Judge is coming back this season.'"

Another fan repeated the same, writing, "Translation: 'he ain’t coming back so we didn’t want to spend.'"

One fan even added, "They won't come out and say he's done for the season because then the stadium is going be empty - -"

Part of the fear comes from the 2018 memory. Yankees fans have heard this cautious injury language before.

That year, Judge broke a bone in his wrist after getting hit by a pitch and was told he'd miss about three weeks. Three weeks turned into more than two months.

Judge didn't play again until mid-September, and when he did, he was noticeably limited.

That's why one fan warned at the end: "Yeah, he’s not coming back. And if he does, it’ll be in the same fashion as 18(?) where he was super limited in what he could do for a while."

Read more at the New York Yankees Community!

Written by

Md Saife Fida