MLB Rumors: Aaron Judge May Not See Action For Yankees This Season

Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees is nowhere to be found in spring training and it appears the real reason behind it is now out of the bag. The 27-year-old slugger has a broken rib and could require surgery to remove the bone altogether.

Yankees team manager Aaron Boone gave the update to Bryan Hoch, tell them that Judge has a stress fracture in his first right rib. This is the bone located near the upper chest/ shoulder area. If rest will not help heal it, a medical procedure to take it out of his body is likely to be the next step. If that does happen, there is no telling how long Judge would be out for the Yankees.

This development is a big blow to the Yankees and their fans. New York opens its 2020 season on Mar. 26 when they face the Baltimore Orioles. It remains unclear when Judge suffered the injury. But according to Boone, it may have occurred back in September when the outfielder dove for a ball during a game. Judge is one of the league's brightest young stars, hitting .272 with 27 home runs in just 102 games last season, TMZ Sports reported.

The timing of the revelation of Judge's injury could not have come at a worse time. According to the New York Post, the two-time MLB All-Star had good intentions in mind. He thought he could deal with the soreness in the offseason and apparently it did not.

“I was pissed off the way the season ended and [there were] changes I wanted to make and I went right back to it. In my head, I thought it was something I could fight through and it cost me,’’ Judge said.

The loser from all of this is the Yankees and the best he could have done was probably had it checked. Judge said that the soreness seemed normal when he started his offseason workouts. Having been idle for so long, he thought it was normal. Apparently, he thought wrong.

Judge is the latest Yankee to join sickbay. Already out are James Paxton, Luis Severino, Giancarlo Stanton, and Aaron Hicks. Now it will be interesting how the Yankees will try to resolve this manpower issue with the bullpen dwindling.