UTK Flash 7/26/25

Aaron Judge Out with elbow issue

Reports from New York have Aaron Judge heading to visit Yankees team physician Chris Ahmad with what one source says is an “expected UCL sprain.” This would be a tough injury for Judge and the Yankees, but not as bad as most will think. Remember, not long ago, Bryce Harper played through the second half of the season with a complete rupture of his UCL. It necessitated a move to DH and then to first base for Harper, but there is the same chance that Judge could play through this and even succeed.

It’s likely that the Yankees already know, from both manual testing and from ultrasound imaging, perhaps even an MRI that was done early Saturday. While Ahmad is one of the top surgeons who often does Tommy John surgery, including his own “TJ3” variant, the visit isn’t confirmation. Again, one source expects that to be the case, but I could not get anyone to go on the record with something stronger.

What if this is a milder sprain? It’s still likely the same issue. Judge is already having problems throwing and unless this is very small, the idea that he could play and conservatively rehab it is tougher. The team could try biologics and they’ve had success with this going back better than a decade with Masahiro Tanaka. However, Tanaka was shut down during this.

The more likely path is that Judge is shut down for a short period, perhaps a 10-day minimum, and then he comes back to DH-only. That creates some issues, with Giancarlo Stanton locked in there. A swap is unlikely given Stanton’s own elbow issues, with the bilateral tendonosis, nor is an in-season move to first base. I don’t know if Judge has ever worked at first base and learning in the midst of a pennant race wouldn’t be easy.

We could go back to what the Cardinals did with Albert Pujols, shifting him to the outfield - where Judge already is - and using a deep cutoff to minimize his throws. Edgar Renteria would dead sprint as far as he could to shorten any throw Pujols made and his plus arm at the time, plus the Cards would do an odd second cut, either tucking the 3B behind the throw to “re-cut” or rotating the first baseman over, an athletic Tino Martinez. Given their success, maybe Aaron Boone can get Pujols or Renteria on the horn to see how that worked. Of note, Pujols only had a minor nerve transposition before having a more involved elbow surgery in 2008.

So, best case, the Yankees can adjust and worst case isn’t really that bad. You’ll see Judge and the Yankees have to find a middle ground between Bryce Harper’s 2022 situation and the Pujols situation of ‘03. The idea that Judge will be shut down in the long term or have surgery immediately is very unlikely given what we know about the injury and that the ligament isn’t involved in the swing. While Judge has unusual hitting mechanics and methods and certainly swings with velocity and precision, it’s not clear that those make him much different than others who have been in this situation.

More on the injury as information comes in, likely in UTK Monday.