TAMPA — A few hours after Aaron Boone said the quiet part out loud — that Aaron Judge may not get “back to throwing like he normally does” the rest of the season as he deals with a flexor strain — the Yankees manager tried to backtrack slightly.
“Maybe that’s a little [overstated],” Boone said.
But Judge did not seem thrilled about the initial prediction.
“I don’t know why he said that,” the captain said after throwing in the outfield at Steinbrenner Field. “He hasn’t seen me throw the past two weeks. I’m pretty confident I’ll get back to [100 percent].”
Boone had made the first comment during an appearance on WFAN Tuesday morning, but during his pregame session with reporters later in the day, tried to clarify what he meant.
“I’m just saying, is he going to come back and be a 70-80 arm (80 being elite on the 20-80 scouting scale) that he normally is?” Boone said. “I don’t know that I’m expecting that necessarily. When we get him back out there, I would expect him to be able to handle himself out there.
“I think I was trying to say initially, I don’t expect him coming out making Aaron Judge throws that we’ve become accustomed to seeing.”
Neither Judge nor Boone were willing to offer a guess at when the reigning AL MVP might be able to play the field again, but Judge said he was feeling “way better” than when he started his throwing progression two weeks ago Wednesday.
He is still experiencing some soreness, but has thrown out to 150 feet, with the next and likely last step in his progression being throwing to bases, though Judge was not sure when that would happen either.
“That’s up to the training staff and what we want to do,” Judge said. “But getting out to 150 [feet] feeling good, so hoping to be back out there soon and give [Giancarlo Stanton] a break from playing the field and mixing in DH and outfield.”
With Judge tying up the DH, Stanton started in right field again on Tuesday for the first time since last Wednesday, sitting out the weekend series at Busch Stadium because of lingering lower-body soreness from playing the outfield three straight days (for the first time since 2022) last week.
Boone said he did not have any hesitation putting Stanton back in the field Tuesday — Steinbrenner Field has the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium, meaning a smaller right field — but the Yankees are taking an injury risk every time the veteran slugger goes out there.
Judge, meanwhile, said he would be “cautious” to make sure he does not make the flexor injury worse, citing the rest of the season he has to get through, but indicated he “hopes” there will come a time when he will be able to let it rip.
“Just got to be smart with it,” he said. “I’m not going to be out there and be reckless, just like a guy, if he pulls a hamstring, you don’t expect him to go out there and run 120 percent on the first ball that he gets or base hit he gets. It’s just about being smart and being ready so we can go out there and put out the best team.”
Whenever Judge has dealt with an injury during his big league career, the Yankees have largely treated the specifics like state secrets.
The reason for that dates back to 2018, when Judge broke his wrist and the team offered an initial timeline that he did not make it back by. That led to more questions about why he still was not ready.
Because of that, Judge has typically declined to put any timetables on his return, with Boone doing the same and insisting he is just waiting for the green light from the training staff.
“We’re going to be patient and put him out there when we feel like he’s able to do it and protect himself,” Boone said. “There’s always some level of risk, but no, I’m waiting on the trainers to say he’s good to go on it. This is the nature of the injury that he had.”
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