‘Best Player In The World’ Aaron Judge Makes His Return To The Yankees

Aaron Judge has made his long-awaited return from injury to help the New York Yankees secure the top wild card spot in the AL.

The back-to-back AL MVP rejoins a Yankees club that is four games back of the Rays for the division with 17 games to play and only two games clear of the Red Sox for the top AL wild card. Despite this, they have survived his absence, going 45-39 while he was gone they had to deal with other injuries during that span.

“Best player in the world,” manager Aaron Boone said over the weekend. “I think it would give us a lot of balance, too, to give us that right-handed hitter. On the days we’re facing a righty, where we got all our lefties, to have a right-handed hitter in that two-three hole, I think goes a long way. Not only potentially having his production back in there, but hopefully putting the other guys in a better spot, too.” 

Judge petitioned his way out of a rehab assignment before being activated; many thought he would ease back into the squad.

 During his second game back against the Colorado Rockies, Judge went 2/4 at the plate, where he connected with two balls to earn a single in the 3rd and 8th innings. The single in the third inning led to a George Lombard Jr. grand slam in the third inning that earned Judge a run.

The last game Judge played was May 31, when the Yankees beat the Athletics to improve to 36-23. They started 10-5 without him before a disappointing 4-14 stretch into July. But they began to pick up form, not by relying on scoring but by leaning on their bullpen and pitching staff.

With 17 games left in the season, the Yankees hope that Judge, alongside his teammates, stay healthy as they hope to reach the World Series after crashing out in the ALDS last year.