New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge is still a ways away from getting back on the diamond.
Judge, who's been sidelined since early June with a stress fracture in his rib, had imaging done earlier this week to determine his progression over the last six weeks, manager Aaron Boone said Friday, according to Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News. While the results were encouraging, there's still no firm timetable for his return.
"Reimaging showed healing but not enough to resume baseball activities," the Yankees said in a statement obtained by Phillips. "There will be a rehab progression and reimaging before baseball activities occur. We are waiting to speak again to Dr. (Gregory) Pearl to provide instruction and guidance into what activities he can progress to, as well as a time frame for next reimaging."
Both Judge and the team are still optimistic that he'll return this season.
"It is feeling better," Judge said, according to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. "There were a couple of weeks that were tough and I really couldn't do a lot, but now I'm feeling 10 times better. That was my big complaint: If I'm feeling better, how about we start moving? But I think they just don't want to start adding baseball activities and all of a sudden we have a setback that pushes everything back."
Judge played through the injury for over a month before finally being placed on the IL on June 2. The three-time AL MVP hit .248/.375/.533 with 17 homers and 38 RBIs during the first two months of the season. Despite missing time, he was still voted into the AL's starting outfield for the All-Star Game but was later replaced by teammate Cody Bellinger.
The Yankees were 36-23 on May 31, the last game Judge appeared in. Since then, they've gone 18-19 and their offense has slumped without the captain in the middle of the lineup.
New York entered Friday sitting 2.5 games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East.
