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Fantasy Baseball 2018: Yankees Aaron Judge out 3 weeks

By Bill Pivetz

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 26: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees heads to the dugout after he scored in the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium on July 26, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JULY 26: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees heads to the dugout after he scored in the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium on July 26, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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The Yankees, and fantasy baseball owners, will be without power-hitting outfielder Aaron Judge for at least 3 weeks while he recovers from a fractured wrist.

The New York Yankees were riding high after news broke that they acquired Zach Britton and J.A. Happ with the former making his first appearance on Thursday. The morale took a big hit after seeing outfielder Aaron Judge take a pitch off of his right wrist. An MRI revealed a chip fracture and he will be out at least three weeks.

The Yankees are still in decent shape despite losing Judge. How should his fantasy owners react to the news?

No one player off the waiver wire will be able to replicate what Judge can do. However, if you can add a couple of players in his absence, they should be able to make up the difference.

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If you are looking for power, Jake Bauers has 11 RBIs in his last 15 games. However, for batting average, guys like Cameron Maybin and Carlos Gonzalez are available. Kole Calhoun can provide the best of both worlds. He has five home runs, 10 RBIs and a .316 average in that time span.

Looking in-house, the Yankees will deploy an outfield of Brett Gardner, Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton. They recently traded away outfield prospect Billy McKinney. Jacoby Ellsbury and Clint Frazier are still hurt. Outfielder Shane Robinson was promoted so he may see some playing time if the Yankees want to keep Stanton off the field.

Judge is having another great season. He is hitting .285 with 26 home runs, 61 RBIs and 70 runs scored. He is leading the team in homers, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, walks, runs and RBIs.

The current Yankees hitters lose a bit of lineup protection. Stanton and Didi Gregorius are second and third in team home runs and RBIs with Aaron Hicks not too far behind. Not having Judge in the middle of that order hurts their potential some to see more good pitches and drive in runs.

Judge should be back by mid-August. Owners in re-draft leagues must do nothing else but stash him on your DL. In keeper and dynasty formats, if an owner sends you a trade and you’re in a win-now mode, I wouldn’t blame you for accepting that deal.

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The Yankees will be okay without Judge. Fantasy owners, on the other hand, are scrambling to the waiver wire for a replacement. You probably have a backup outfielder or two that you couldn’t start on a regular basis anyway. Use that player for a couple of weeks and maybe add depth to fill your roster.

You still have the numbers Judge gave you. You’ll just be without his potential performance for a few weeks.

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