Are the Yankees taking an unnecessary risk with Aaron Judge's return?

The day New York Yankees fans have been waiting for is finally here: After over three months on the Injured List due to a rib fracture — three months in which his team's offense promptly fell into the tank — Aaron Judge is finally back. The three-time AL MVP was brought back onto the active roster ahead of Tuesday's series opener against the Colorado Rockies, just in time for New York to try and make one final push to catch the Tampa Bay Rays for the AL East title and a first-round bye in October.

Of course, he'll be doing so without the benefit of a single rehab game in the Minors. In fact, Judge hit off live pitching for the first time during the team's off day on Monday at Yankee Stadium. He's been medically cleared to do everything one needs to do on a Major League diamond; he just hasn't actually done those things much at all since the end of May, and there's no telling how long it might take him to start looking like the game-changing hitter New York needs him to be.

Aaron Boone even told Jomboy Media on Tuesday afternoon that he plans on easing Judge back into game action, not playing him a full nine innings and likely not playing him every single day until the star outfielder gets his legs back under him. New York is essentially letting Judge conduct his rehab assignment on the fly, at the big-league level, during the most pressure-packed portion of the season. It's not hard to see the risk there — and what's even scarier for the Yankees is that they don't really have another choice.

Yankees' huge Aaron Judge gamble is a risk the team has to take

There's no doubt that bringing Judge back in this manner is a risk, whether that's risking reinjury or just risking some bad at-bats as he works to regain his timing at the plate. But to answer the question posed in the headline above: It's anything but a risk if New York is to get where it wants to go this season.

It's hard to overstate just how badly the Yankees need Judge back in the lineup. Since he landed on the IL on June 1, New York ranks 29th out of 30 teams in wRC+ — including dead last in on-base percentage and second-to-last in strikeout rate. They simply cannot score runs with any kind of consistency, and the man brought in as a short-term replacement for Judge in the outfield, deadline acquisition Heliot Ramos, is in the midst of a miserable slump.

And yet, through all of that, New York has kept its head above water. They're 45-39 since Judge went down, a borderline miraculous mark considering just how awful they've been offensively, and they're still in control of the first AL Wild Card spot and within spitting distance of the Rays for the division and the No. 1 seed in the AL. With pitching good enough to win big, it's all too tempting to imagine what this team could be capable of with Judge back at the height of his powers.

And if Judge was going to return this season, it pretty much had to be now. Rushing him back only makes sense if it meaningfully boosts the team's title odds. Overtaking the Rays in the AL would be a huge step in that direction, and New York cannot afford to cede any more ground ahead of a four-game set against Tampa in the Bronx two weeks from now. Plus, the Yankees aren't going anywhere in October if Judge isn't at or near his best; bringing him back later in the month would just mean forcing him to try and shake off the rust in the hothouse of the postseason.

Is the current situation with Judge ideal? Obviously not. But very little about this Yankees season has been. But somehow, some way, there's still a chance for this team to make another World Series run, and you don't know how many more times that will be true while Judge, Ben Rice, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Cody Bellinger are all playing this well. New York needs to push its chips in, hope for the best and deal with the consequences later.

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