Aaron Judge has officially been activated from the Injured List after a two-month stint on the sidelines.
Roster Move: Prior to tonight’s game, the Yankees returned RF Aaron Judge from rehab and reinstated him from the 10-day injured list.
— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) June 21, 2019
This roster move corresponds with the option of Nestor Cortes Jr. following last night’s game.
Today marks exactly two months since Judge was placed on the IL with a strained oblique, which he suffered on April 20 (he was removed from the 25-man roster the next day). In a blowout over the Kansas City Royals, he was visibly hurt after a single to right field and was removed from the game, sending panic into each and every Yankees fan watching.
Video of the Aaron Judge injury: pic.twitter.com/wczSfR9J9C
— Max Wildstein (@MaxWildstein) April 20, 2019
Before the injury, Judge was in the midst of another dominant season. Through 89 plate appearances across 20 games, he posted a .288/.404/.521 slash line with a .388 wOBA and a 145 wRC+. In other words, he was playing just as well as everyone would expect him to play.
When he went down, the team had just a 10-10 record after a slow start and were behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East standings. But thanks to unlikely contributions from Gio Urshela Clint Frazier, Cameron Maybin and even Mike Tauchman (to a lesser extent), the Yankees managed to go a ridiculous 37-17 in his stead.
The team has been in first place for weeks now, and they just acquired Edwin Encarnacion in a trade last weekend and activated Giancarlo Stanton earlier this week.
With Judge’s return, not only do the Yankees possess arguably the most intimidating lineup in all of baseball, they could be one of the best groups in history.
