Aaron Judge may return for the Yankees as early as next week

Aaron Judge continues to increase his rehab work every day. According to Aaron Boone, he could be returning to the Yankees lineup very soon.

The New York Yankees have done a credible job of holding up without Aaron Judge in the lineup, but no one wants to do it much longer. Fortunately for his teammates, Judge is inching closer and closer to a return to the diamond.

In fact, if everything goes right, Judge could be back in Aaron Boone’s lineup next week. According to the Yankees manager, Judge is slated for “pretty extensive” work over the weekend. He declined to specify a potential timeline for Judge’s return, but the fact that he didn’t outline anything past Monday gives us a big hint about the organization’s plans.

Expecting him to be back in the mix on Monday is likely too optimistic, but it’s clear Judge’s return isn’t that far off. To date, there have been zero discussions about a rehabilitation assignment of any kind. In fairness, every minor league team in the system is either finished playing or still participating in the playoffs. There really isn’t anywhere for Judge to go.

That means the only real way to get him back up to speed is to let him play games with the big league club. In some ways that isn’t the ideal way to build the slugger’s confidence up, but it’s currently the only option available to Brian Cashman and company. Getting Judge up and running before the playoffs begin is an absolute must for the team’s hopes of making a postseason run.

The only concern about Judge at the moment is that he is still feeling pain in his wrist. That’s not unusual for a player who’s experienced a chipped bone. In a perfect world, the team would wait for all of his pain to subside, but that’s not the current reality. As long as playing Judge doesn’t increase his chances of sustaining a more serious injury, the Yankees are going to put him out there to see what he can do.

It’s been a long wait for Yankees fans, but their best hitter is almost back. When Judge returns, the team can really get an idea of what sort of damage it can do in October.