If You Weren't Worried Before, Worry Now. Judge Is Hurt.

I wanted to believe that Judge was okay but after seeing his shoulder all bandaged up in two different interviews and in a terrible slump I knew something was up. It was just too much of a coincidence. We asked last week PANIC TIME: IS JUDGE INJURED? and now we know he is. We said he needed a brief recess and he got one on Monday and Tuesday when he participated in no baseball activities. Joe Girardi thought about playing him in both games of Wednesday’s doubleheader but sided against it and played him in game 2. The Yankees know there is something wrong here too….but they aren’t going to admit it to us.

Judge hasn’t given us any details on the shoulder, he says that not any one specific event caused the issue but now all of the sudden the Yankees are considering giving judge a cortisone shot, read that HERE. Heck, why not an MRI at this point? A slumping player walking around with a bandaged up shoulder sounds like a good enough reason, especially since he is such an important part of the team and the Yankees need the Aaron Judge from BEFORE the All-Star game back. That nice Wild Card lead the Yankees once had is gone….it’s down to ONE game.

I’m so glad that Joe Girardi can downplay this shoulder injury and just say “there’s been discussions” about the cortisone shot. He also says that since Judge “feels pretty good about it, so I feel pretty good about it. The couple days off probably could help that as much as the rest of his body.” How can you feel “pretty good about it” when your star player is slumping and your lead for the Wild Card is gone? It’s not time for sunshine and rainbows here. It’s time for the cold hard truth and some real facts.

The Yankees can’t afford to prance around this issue anymore. Hearing judge himself say
“I’ve got ice on my shoulders, my knees. I wish I could ice my whole body. I’ve got to ice it every day. The whole body is kind of beat up” tells me that the issue is not getting better. Sure, all players have fatigue by this point in the season. They are all dealing with some sort of ailment but the Yankees need to start addressing the issue and treating it….not just waiting for it to treat itself.

We need Judge back and productive to make this postseason push. I appreciate the Derek Jeter like aspect to his approach with his shoulder issue. He’s not making excuses and he obviously won’t let us know that his shoulder is in fact bothering him…..but it isn’t solving the issue.

Rest will only go so far if this is a serious problem. It’s time to act on it now before it’s too late…

–Jeana Bellezza