Aaron Judge

Sam Vercruysse

The injury concerns for the Yankees continues to mount as it was announced that Aaron Judge will miss at least the first few weeks of the season with a rib injury. Judge was recovering from offseason shoulder surgery and was on track to come back to start the season before the news of this injury was released. It was reported that Judge was not fully truthful with team doctors. Judge had injured the rib towards the end of last season and it has not fully healed and will need extra time to heal before he can begin play this season. This bad injury news comes on the heals of Louis Severino being lost for the season, Giancarlo Stanton dealing with a calf strain and James Paxton set to miss significant time. The Yankees, although very deep, have not been able to keep healthy over the last few seasons. Judge has been one of the stars that has missed significant time with injury as he missed the whole first half of last season with a hand injury. This has been an unsettling trend that the Yankees have had in recent history that raises questions about the training and medical staff. How have these big stars been so consistently unhealthy? As you may remember Severino and Stanton missed the entire regular season last year with injuries as well. As for a replacement for Judge, eyes are turning to role players like Clint Frazier and Mike Tauchman. Tauchman spent significant time in the majors last year filling in on off days and had productive moments. Frazier was brought over in the Andrew Miller trade to Cleveland and has loads of potential but has always been behind talent in the Yankee outfield. This may be his time to finally shine and show that he is a capable every day Major League player.