Quick thoughts after Aaron Judge goes down with a flexor strain

UPDATE: Want to add two things quick. One, the injury is to Judge's throwing arm, his right arm, which is his back arm when hitting. That's good. Injuries to the front elbow (like Didi Gregorius back in the day and Bryce Harper more recently) are the scary ones just because of the way you extend and all that when you swing. An injury to the back elbow is still bad. It's just less bad than the front elbow.

And two, I really don't think Spencer Jones is the move here. The Yankees are already overly left-handed, plus you're talking about adding a prospect to the 40-man roster and burning an option when he has to go down later. If Judge's injury turns into an long-term thing, then we can talk about Jones. For now, I think the Yankees will go with De La Cruz or Pereira, at least until they bring in someone else at the trade deadline.

ORIGINAL POST: Turns out Aaron Judge grimacing and flexing his arm the last few days was actually something and not the nothing Judge and Aaron Boone said it was. Judge has a flexor strain and will go on the injured list, the Yankees revealed today. Tests showed his UCL is intact. This is good news but only relative to the worst case scenario. Flexor strains are nasty business and can lead to UCL trouble down the road.

This is not the death knell Judge’s toe injury was two years ago because the Yankees have a way better lineup now than they did then. They were already cycling through Jake Bauers, Willie Calhoun, Franchy Cordero, et al before Judge got hurt in 2023. His absence now means they’ll roll with Cody Bellinger, Jasson Domínguez, and Trent Grisham in the outfield every game, and that’s still pretty good.

The Yankees need to call up another actual outfielder to replace Judge because Bellinger, Domínguez, and Grisham are the only outfielders on the roster. Bryan De La Cruz or Everson Pereira are the obvious call up candidates. Pereira (127 wRC+) is significantly outperforming De La Cruz (91 wRC+) in Triple-A, plus he’s a better defender. Is it Spencer Jones time? I don’t think the Yankees will go there yet.

The trade deadline is coming up and the Yankees could bring in more outfield help then, but the shopping list is already long (they need like six relievers), and there is no replacing Judge anyway. Whatever they do will be a band-aid until he returns, and when he does return, we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed that he can stay on the field and this flexor strain doesn’t pop up again. It sucks. It is what it is.

Judge will DH initially when he returns and that’s a problem because Giancarlo Stanton is a DH only – Boone said Stanton will start taking fly balls in the outfield, so we’ll see that goes – and he’s been so good the last few weeks. The Yankees can’t really afford to take him out of the lineup. Worry about this when Judge returns, I guess. Boone said Judge could be back in the minimum 10 days, but we’ll see.

It goes without saying losing Judge for any length of time is devastating. The Yankees are on an 87-win pace and they’re 14-23 in their last 37 games, and that’s with Judge. They’re pretty much done in the AL East race (seven back in the loss column once you factor in the tiebreaker) and the Wild Card race is pretty tight. Now the Yankees won’t have the game’s best hitter for who knows how long.