Aaron Judge's ego is turning his injury into a distraction the Yankees don't need

Listen to Aaron Judge speak for more than five seconds, and you understand just how desperately he wants to honor the decision to make him captain of the New York Yankees. He knows that this era of one of sport's most storied franchises has been molded in his image, and how richly he's been compensated for it, and he knows the pressures that come along with that privilege. He feels the weight of expectation and history, and he would do just about anything to live up to them.

But at this point, it seems fair to say that maybe he wants it too much. We've seen it time and again in the postseason, his chase and K rates ballooning as he tries to hit a five-run homer every time he steps to the plate — as if one big swing will exorcise all his demons at once. And we're seeing it play out in real time right now, as his efforts to ignore a very obvious injury to his throwing elbow have just created another distraction that this Yankees team does not need right now.

Aaron Judge's throw vs. Blue Jays raises alarm bells

Judge spent a couple of weeks on the IL after suffering a right flexor tendon strain toward the end of July. He returned to the lineup on Aug. 5, but he spent the rest of the month as a DH only, a sign that his arm clearly wasn't feeling well enough to play the outfield at the big-league level. That, understandably, caused no small amount of consternation among Yankees fans, many of whom began to wonder whether Judge's injury would actually require Tommy John surgery sooner rather than later.

Judge tried to put those fears to rest against the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night, when he started in right field for the first time since his injury. Unfortunately, it took less than one inning to just make everything worse:

After a Nathan Lukes single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, Judge had an opportunity to try and throw Daulton Varsho out at the plate. Varsho hadn't even fully rounded third yet by the time Judge had the ball in his glove; it's the sort of play we've seen No. 99 make time and time and again at Yankee Stadium during his career. This time, though ... he limply flipped the ball to cutoff man Jazz Chisholm Jr., who couldn't do anything but let Varsho score easily.

It was a shocking admission of just where Judge is at physically right now. But rather than simply be honest with everyone about what he's trying to push through for the sake of his team, Judge instead opted to gaslight everyone, insisting to reporters after the game that he was just trying to "get it to the cutoff man, let him do his thing," and that there was actually nothing strange about the play at all.

Which, I mean, come on: That's pretty obviously a lie. I've never played the outfield at the Major League level, and Judge has forgotten more about baseball than I'll ever know. But as a Yankees fan, I've also watched enough of Judge in right field to know that this is exactly the sort of play on which he typically comes up throwing with a perfect strike to home plate.

To insist otherwise, when everybody just saw evidence to the contrary, is preposterous. Even worse, it's self-defeating: You can't simply tell everyone not to believe their lying eyes and hope that it'll fly, especially not in New York. And now this has become a story with a life of its own, one that Judge's manager, Aaron Boone, now has to take heat for — left fumblingly offering the same unsatisfying explanations over and over again because he knows he can't say anything else.

Judge has taken notes on the Derek Jeter School of Yankees Captaincy, one that says you should do everything you possibly can to be out there leading your team while making as few excuses as humanly possible. But while that's all well and good in the abstract, sometimes our bodies simply don't cooperate. And insisting on lying to yourself and everyone around you isn't actually what's best for the Yankees; really, it just makes everything more difficult.

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Aaron Judge putting Yankees teammates, coaches in a thankless position

There are plenty of Yankees fans getting upset with Boone in the aftermath of Friday's loss, which is in some ways understandable: It's yet another disappointing result against a critical division opponent, and he is the manager after all. But really, when it comes to Judge, what's he supposed to say?

It's no secret that the buck stops with Judge in New York's clubhouse. He's the $360 million man, the two-time MVP who will carry this team as far as it can go come October. If he insists that he's feeling well enough to play right field, well, that's the end of that — the last time Boone tried to be honest about his star's injury, Judge put him on blast in front of the media for his troubles. If Judge wants to be out there, he's going to be out there; and if he's out there, there's no upside to Boone admitting that it's a bad idea ... especially when Judge is contracting him a few feet away.

The responsibility here is with Judge himself, who needs to realize that sometimes checking your ego and doing less is actually the best way to lead your team. Maybe Judge and the team know that he's destined for surgery this offseason, but they need him to play right field anyway in order to try and get Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice's bats in the lineup more consistently. But if that's the case, why not just be honest with everyone? Sure, it would be a tough news cycle, but is it not preferable to the current situation, where everyone knows Judge is compromised but no one will admit it?

If Judge had just come clean about his physical reality right now, it would've been a one-day story that would've died down as everyone adjusted to what he was and wasn't capable of. Maybe they just don't want opponents knowing that they can run at will on New York's right fielder, but really, that cat was going to escape the bag eventually anyway. The longer Judge keeps this up, the worse it's going to get, and the tougher life will be for everyone around him.