Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters Wednesday afternoon that next steps aren’t solidified yet for Aaron Judge and his comeback from a right big toe sprain. Boone said Judge is feeling soreness after receiving a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection in the toe.
The Yankees placed Judge on the 10-day injured list Wednesday after he crashed into the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium this past weekend. The injury occurred when Judge slammed his foot into the concrete section of the bottom of the wall, which has led the Dodgers to reinforce the fence and add padding.
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Boone said there’s no timeline for when Judge might return to play, and there likely won’t be any further update until the swelling in his toe has subsided. After Tuesday’s game against the White Sox, Boone said the swelling has started to diminish from where it was Sunday. That’s encouraging news for the Yankees, according to Dr. Spencer Stein, a sports orthopedic surgeon at NYU Langone Health, who hasn’t seen Judge’s X-rays or MRI scans and isn’t treating him. Stein, discussing the matter based on his own experience and expertise with the type of injury that has been reported, said that’s the case because if Judge had suffered a fracture, bone bruise or partial tear of a ligament in his toe, the swelling could last for days due to the body’s blood flow. Essentially, the longer the swelling lasts, the longer it will take for Judge to begin his return to the lineup.
Stein said the fact that Judge received a PRP injection is a good sign because it normally means the patient has a low-grade injury and not a complete tear of a ligament that’s in need of treatment. A PRP injection is used to help speed up the recovery and improve ligament healing. Publicly, the Yankees have ruled out a fracture in Judge’s toe.
Based on what the Yankees have shared regarding the reigning American League MVP’s injury, Stein said it sounds like Judge has a Grade 1 ligament sprain. The usual return-to-action plan for this injury would be one to two weeks of no activity followed by another one to two weeks of ramping back up to 100 percent health.
“Four-ish weeks would be a reasonable inference based on what we have,” Stein said.
Because Judge injured his right foot, it could take a bit longer for him to return than if it were his left foot. His right foot is his pivot foot, which means he’s putting immense pressure on that foot when he swings.
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“That’s a little more concerning because the ligament takes time to heal and solidify,” Stein said of Judge’s right foot. “It could potentially take a little longer to recover and he could be at risk for re-injury when he returns. It could become a little longer-lasting injury. For the most part, if it’s a sprain, it will heal.”
With a ligament sprain, Stein would recommend his patients not return to physical activity unless they are 100 percent healthy. Returning to physical activity before then is a risk because the ligament will naturally be weaker for several weeks up to a month as it fully heals. If Judge returned and tried playing through pain, it’s likely to become a nagging injury with the possibility of turning into a more severe injury that requires surgery, Stein said.
Last season, DJ LeMahieu experienced the type of nagging pain Stein mentioned. In the second half of the season, LeMahieu became a shell of himself and had nearly all of his power and ability to hit zapped because of a broken sesamoid bone. After watching the video of Judge’s injury, Stein said the Yankees outfielder is lucky because it could have been much worse. It’s not unusual for a person to have a fracture in the sesamoid bone with that kind of impact, which Stein said would be the worst-case scenario for Judge. A broken sesamoid bone would be a Grade 3 injury and if Judge needed surgery in that scenario, it would be a four-to-six month recovery, according to Stein, and obviously end his season.
Ligament sprains can be unpredictable though. Timelines for recovery vary from person to person. That’s why there are times where it’s “better” to have a break than a sprain.
“It depends on the kind of break,” Stein said. “Sometimes a break of the toe can heal more reliably than a ligament sprain. Sometimes the adage is true that if it’s a fracture, a break is better than a ligament or tendon tear. In this case, a low grade sprain, which is what we think it is, is probably better than a sesamoid fracture or big toe fracture.”
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Without Judge for likely the next few weeks, at a minimum, the Yankees signed outfielder Billy McKinney to a major-league contract. Boone said Estevan Florial and Franchy Cordero were considered for the spot, too, but the club went with McKinney because of his defensive flexibility and “in this moment in time now, I think Billy made the most sense.” To make room for McKinney on the 40-man roster, the Yankees transferred relief pitcher Ryan Weber to the 60-day IL. McKinney had an .899 OPS and nine home runs with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
McKinney started slowly for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this year. In April, he slashed .215/.271/.354 in 18 games. But since May, McKinney had slashed .343/.494/.687 with seven home runs in 21 games. McKinney mostly played first base for Scranton but is normally a corner outfielder. Here’s the current group of active Yankees outfielders: McKinney, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Jake Bauers, Willie Calhoun and Oswaldo Cabrera. Boone said it’ll likely take some time for Giancarlo Stanton to play the outfield after returning to the lineup this past weekend, but that plan likely has to be accelerated.
No matter what the Yankees do in the outfield right now, replacing Judge in the lineup and in the field is a challenging task for Boone.
“I guess, technically, you have less margin of error when you take the best player in the sport out of your lineup every day,” Boone said. “With that said, we’re also getting some key guys back in our lineup — a lineup that’s, frankly, been doing a really good job of scoring runs in different ways. We’ve had other guys step up. We’ll mix and match maybe a little more and be a little more matchup dependent based on some of the left- and right-(handed hitters) we have in our clubhouse and some of the defensive flexibility we have. We’ll get more creative.”
(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Aaron Judge’s toe injury: Sports surgeon discusses Yankees star’s possible recovery timeline
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