Yankees superstar Aaron Judge has been hampered by injury this spring. After having not played in a spring training game since March 10 -- with several delays -- he finally returned to the lineup on Wednesday evening in Florida. He doubled home a run in his first plate appearance:
There we go, Captain 🫡 pic.twitter.com/tP455UfvCk
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) March 20, 2024
That's nice to see, especially seeing him go down to get that low pitch and punch it the other way, knowing that Judge had been dealing with an abdominal issue. In addition to the ab thing, which required an MRI a few weeks ago, Judge has also said that his big toe injury from last season is something that would require "constant maintenance" the rest of his career. Both of those items remain worrisome for the Yankees, of course, but seeing swings like this will help alleviate some of those concerns.
The Yankees' bats were wide awake early in this bout against the Pirates, too. Through the first four innings, Giancarlo Stanton homered three times (including a grand slam) while Anthony Volpe also hit one out of the park. In addition to his RBI double, Judge also walked and scored twice. He was replaced after those two plate appearances.
Judge, 31, won AL MVP in 2022 when he hit .311/.425/.686 (210 OPS+) with 28 doubles 62 home runs, 131 RBI, 133 runs, 16 steals and 10.5 WAR. He signed a nine-year, $360 million deal with the Yankees the following offseason. Last season, he was off to another amazing year before he ran into the Dodger Stadium wall and injured his big toe. When he went on the injured list, he was hitting .291/.404/.674 with 10 homers and 40 RBI in 49 games. He'd return for 57 more games and hit .245/.408/.557 with 18 homers the rest of the way.
The Yankees were one of the most disappointing teams in baseball in 2023, finishing 82-80. The offense ranked 11th in the AL in runs scored and 10th in OPS. A full season of a healthy Judge would go a long way in helping restore the offensive firepower, in addition to having traded for Juan Soto in the offseason. Anthony Rizzo was also playing through concussion symptoms for a bit last season before being shut down and Volpe was a rookie. This is to say, there are reasons to believe the Yankees' offense will be much improved in 2024.
In order for that to come to fruition, however, they'll need a fully functional Judge. Consider Wednesday a step in the right direction.
