Judge Vows a Return: 'I'll Be Back This Season'
Yankees slugger cleared for light activity after fractured rib re-imaged
By Gus "Walk-Off" Fields
Aaron Judge hasn't stood in a big-league batter's box since May 31. On Tuesday, doctors slid him back into an imaging machine to check the fractured rib that's kept the Yankees captain sidelined for more than two months. The verdict: cleared for light activity, and cleared, in Judge's own mind, for a lot more than that.
"I'll be back this season," Judge said, according to ESPN, sounding like a man who has already circled a date on the calendar even if the Yankees haven't.
For a lineup that has missed its middle-of-the-order thunder since spring turned to summer, the update is the first real hope in weeks. Rib injuries are notoriously stubborn for hitters — the twist of a swing puts stress right where the bone needs to heal — and teams have learned the hard way not to rush them. The Yankees have not set a firm timetable, and Judge's own optimism, while real, is not the same as a return date.
Still, "light activity" is a word that matters in late summer. It means swings, throws, the small steps that come before a rehab assignment. It means the countdown has, at last, started ticking instead of standing still.
What happens next depends on how the rib responds — and on a Yankees front office that would rather have Judge for October than rush him back for a meaningless August series. But for a fan base that's watched an MVP-caliber year get interrupted, three words were enough for one afternoon: I'll be back.
— Compiled from reporting by ESPN.
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