The Yankees were blown out by the Tigers tonight, dropping their sixth consecutive game in the process. The ugliest stretch of their season has dropped New York 2.5 games back of a red hot Tampa Bay team in the AL East.
It leaves the Yanks with a 12-14 record since Aaron Judge’s most recent appearance. The three-time MVP was shut down for a 4-6 week period before he’d go for reevaluation after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his right rib on June 4. They’ll hit the four-week point on Thursday, but it seems it’ll be the longer end of that timeline.
Manager Aaron Boone said this afternoon that Judge is still unable to do baseball activities and likely “a couple weeks” away from new imaging (link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). The Yankees haven’t provided many specifics on Judge’s timeline, which will become clearer once he’s ready for a second round of testing.
The Yankees are just 20th in scoring this month. Tonight was their 11th straight game scoring four or fewer runs. The entire lineup has gone cold, so the issues go beyond Judge’s absence. Jasson Domínguez’s performance in right field has been one of the problems, though, as he’s hitting .222/.263/.400 through 25 games.
Giancarlo Stanton, Trent Grisham and Ryan McMahon are also all out of action at the moment. Stanton has been down since late April with a nagging calf injury. McMahon went on the shelf last week with an eye infection, while Grisham has been sidelined since June 13 by a right hamstring strain. McMahon and Grisham will both head to Double-A Somerset tomorrow for a rehab game. They’ll probably need just one tune-up before returning to the MLB lineup for the start of a weekend series against Minnesota on Friday.
Spencer Jones has stepped into the primary center field role with Grisham out. The rookie could slide over to right field if the Yankees want to keep him in the lineup while scaling back on Domínguez’s playing time. Jones is a lefty bat, while Domínguez is a switch-hitter who has generally been better from the left side in his career. José Caballero will probably see more outfield work again once McMahon returns as the third baseman versus righty pitching.