Hurting Again?


As the baseball legend and sage philosopher Yogi Berra often said, "It's deja vu all over again."

Yankees fans got some unexpected and disappointing news from Tampa on Tuesday: Aaron Judge is hurting again.

The "Face of the Franchise," who has missed 110 combined games the past two years, started 2020 off on a sour note when he couldn't throw and had to skip batting practice due to shoulder soreness.

Already? Five days before the first Grapefruit League game, the talented but brittle outfielder is already missing time. And it wasn't just Tuesday. Newspaper reports say Judge stopped hitting a week ago.

One thing more, this is the right shoulder, not the one Judge was operated on after crashing into walls during 2017.

The optics aren't good on this one. The personable 2017 Rookie of the Year might just be injury prone: a fractured wrist two years ago, then a lingering oblique strain last year.

Popular as he is, Judge is no longer making rookie-grade minimum. While he's productive, he's not dependable and, as of this season, pricey. Didn't Bill Parcells once say, "You can't win a game from the trainer's room."

With the Yankees looking at potential long-term eight or nine-figure contracts to several of their current core, is Aaron Judge on the verge of missing out? Or to look at it differently, it might not be Judge's fault, but this is his fact.

Comments

paul cianfaglione said…
Didnt I see him on YouTube flipping monster truck tires during a workout this offseason?? No wonder he has a sore shoulder. He and Stanton need to take up yoga instead.
February 19, 2020 at 8:49 AM
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