Aaron Judge could face Kyrie Irving-like vaccine situation this season?

New York sports fans may be hearing a familiar and unwelcome tune ahead of the 2022 MLB season.

Yankees star Aaron Judge met with reporters this week and notably refused to directly answer a question about his COVID-19 vaccination status.

“I’m still focused on just getting to the first game of spring training,” Judge said when asked if he was vaccinated, per the Associated Press. “So I think we’ll cross that bridge after the time comes. But right now, so many things could change. So I’m not really too worried about that right now.”

Of course, New York City still has a mandate requiring every private sector employee to receive the vaccine. Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News clarified Tuesday with a city spokeperson that the mandate also applies to the Yankees and the New York Mets. The spokesperson added that it makes no difference that baseball is an outdoor sport but that the situation could change by Opening Day.

NYC’s private mandate, which took effect on Dec. 27, is what continues to prevent Kyrie Irving from playing in home games for the Brooklyn Nets. But the mandate has made very little sense in that context, as we have seen with the absurd theater surrounding Irving recently.

The mandate would make even less sense for baseball teams, especially since both the Yankees and the Mets play in entirely open-air venues. But that does not seem to matter to the city, opening the door for a potential Irving-like situation to unfold with Judge and any other New York-team MLB player who declines to get vaccinated ahead of the season.