Yankees manager offers ominous update on Aaron Judge's injury

The Yankees placed their captain on the injured list on June 6, but he hasn't played since making a catch while running through the right field wall at Dodger Stadium on June 3. Without their most potent threat, New York has struggled to both score runs and win games. 

After returning from their West Coast trip on June 6, the Yankees dropped back-to-back series against teams with a losing record (White Sox and Red Sox) and failed to score more than three runs just once over those six games.

Overall in games Judge has missed in 2023, the Yankees are 8-10 and scoring just 3.3 runs per game in those games, a lower scoring pace than the historically bad Oakland A's.

More concerning for the Bronx Bombers is that despite placing Judge on the 10-day IL, there still doesn't seem to be a real idea of when he will be healthy enough to return; but Judge's quote on Sunday provides some room for optimism. 

“There’s still a bunch of stuff going on in there,” Judge told the media per nypost.com. "But improvements each day, which has been a good sign. No stepbacks or any holdups. We’re on the right track. Things like this take time."

Before their series begins Tuesday night, the Yankees (38-29) trail the Tampa Bay Rays by nine games in American League East. Meanwhile, the Mets (31-35) have started June a brutal 2-8 and dropped to fourth in the National League East. 

With both clubs facing sizable division leads to overcome, even series like a two-game set in June take on greater importance. 

For the Yankees, the goal is to hold off teams like the Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays until Judge is healthy enough to return before attempting a run at the division. The Mets (who have MLB's highest payroll) simply want to play themselves back into playoff position. They trail San Francisco by three games for the final NL Wild Card spot with three other teams in their way as well. 

The Subway Series begins Tuesday in Queens where Max Scherzer (5-2, 3.71 ERA) takes on Luis Severino (0-1, 5.75 ERA) before a heavyweight matchup between Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander on Wednesday.