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Aaron Judge’s return still isn’t in sight as the New York Yankees star received a second PRP injection in his toe on Thursday to help another ligament that has started to bother him, according to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch.
There is still no timetable for the reigning AL MVP to get back on the diamond.
Judge, 31, has been out of action since a June 3 victory over the Dodgers in Los Angeles in which he went crashing into an outfield fence that gave out under his weight, spraining his right toe in the process.
With Judge already being out about two weeks, ESPN’s Buster Olney sees the situation only growing more dire. He expects the superstar outfielder to miss a very extended amount of time and thinks a return a head of the All-Star break is fairly optimistic given this specific injury.
“Think about the injury that he has: it’s a right big toe injury for a guy who is six-foot-seven and 282 pounds,” Olney said while appearing on the ‘Brady Farkas Show’ on WDEV Radio on Thursday. “For a right-handed hitter, the right big toe is effectively an anchor in his swing. So the pressure he puts on that part of his foot, his toe, is enormous. The Yankees want to make sure that they don’t bring him back too soon because otherwise they’d have a turf toe situation. I think they would be be thrilled if he played before the All-Star break.”
That’s the last thing Yankees fans want to fear as they have had key pieces of their squad missing time all season, including Harrison Bader, Giancarlo Stanton, Jose Trevino, among others.
Big free agent signing Carlos Rodón hasn’t even made his Pinstripes debut as he’s been dealing with back and forearm injuries.
New York has struggled since Judge went down, only winning five of the eight games since the injury. It is now 9.5 games back of the first place Tampa Bay Rays and is barely holding onto the final Wild Card Spot at 39-30.
Judge was in the midst of another stellar campaign when he sprained his toe, hitting .291 with 19 homers and 40 RBI with a 1.078 OPS.