Yankees' Aaron Judge defends playing through rib injury: 'That's what they're paying me to do'

Gary Phillips, New York Daily News on Jun 5, 2026

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — Aaron Judge wouldn’t change a thing.

The Yankees’ captain, placed on the 10-day injured list with a stress fracture of his first right rib, spoke to reporters on Friday for the first time since the team revealed he was dealing with an injury scare on Tuesday. That revelation included the fact that Judge had been playing through nagging discomfort for weeks before his pain worsened in Sacramento last weekend, prompting several rounds of imaging and multiple consultations with doctors after an initial MRI, obscured by swelling, found a bone bruise on Monday.

“We did everything we could to make sure we could be out there, and in Sacramento, it just got a little worse,” Judge said. “I fought as long as I could.”

Asked about playing through an injury that now requires four to six weeks before he can even be reimaged, Judge said he felt a need to be in the lineup with a few other Yankees stars already on the IL.

“Big G’s hurt,” he said, referring to Giancarlo Stanton. “Max Fried’s hurt. We have a lot of guys banged up. You gotta be out there. That’s what they’re paying me to do, is to go out there and play.”

Judge said that he started feeling symptoms after making an awkward dive in Houston at the end of April. He mentioned trying to avoid a teammate on the play, and that symptoms, including shoulder issues, began during the Yankees’ next series in Texas against the Rangers.

A fifth-inning dive that Judge made on April 26 against the Astros matches his description; he had to avoid Jazz Chisholm Jr. in shallow right field.

Judge, who fractured the same rib in a similar spot in 2019, also crashed hard into Yankee Stadium’s right field wall on a third-inning catch against Baltimore on May 3.

“That probably didn’t help,” he said, though he thinks the culmination of all his hitting, diving, throwing, etc. added more stress to his injury and made it worse.

Brian Cashman said it “probably” did as well, but also that “there’s nothing that led us to believe” Judge was dealing with anything significant prior to Sacramento.

“I don’t think there’s anything that anybody could have done, from player to trainer to club to doctor, or whatever, to determine that, ‘Hey, there’s something going on here that’s smoldering,” Cashman continued.

Judge said that he did not communicate his symptoms to manager Aaron Boone until the Yankees’ series in Sacramento, but that the team’s training staff was previously aware.

Boone said that he knew Judge was getting treatment before that series, but players get treatment for minor things all the time, and the right fielder’s injury didn’t become a noticeable issue to the skipper until Sacramento.

Cashman, meanwhile, said that he was not aware of an issue until he got a call from Mike Schuk, the Yankees’ director of sports medicine and rehabilitation, on Monday. Schuk suggested doing imaging on Judge.

“Prior to [Monday], really, it was not on anybody’s radar in any way, shape or form,” Cashman said, offering a somewhat different version of events. “It developed a little bit in the manager-player conversation in Sacramento at the tail end of that series, but prior to that, it really was not on anybody’s radar, from player to trainers to front office.”

The general manager added, “These guys are super sapiens. They’re unbelievable about how they can withstand more [pain] than you and I maybe can withstand,” but Judge’s injury clearly compromised him at the plate as he continued to play.

The back-to-back MVP hit .160 with a .550 OPS and one homer over his last 16 games and .207 with a .649 OPS and two dingers over his last 22 games.

“I just couldn’t swing the way I wanted to,” Judge said, “and Sacramento was the worst, so I definitely felt it in the swing.”

Now the Yankees, trying to win their first championship since 2009, will be without their best player for an unspecified amount of time.

Cashman said the team is “intentionally” avoiding a timetable for Judge, which is just the way the player likes it.

“I don’t like talking timetables,” Judge said. “That stuff’s all made up, so you never know what’s gonna happen.”

The good news is that the Yankees do expect Judge back at some point. Boone and Cashman reiterated that on Friday.

For now, Judge is shut down from baseball activities. He can’t do much above the waist, so that means no throwing, hitting or anything overhead. Judge did say that he can do lower body exercises — he has worked out in the weight room this week — and that he will keep his legs fresh and track as many pitches as possible.

Cashman said Judge can also do cardiovascular work on stationary bikes.

But as for a return to game action?

“That question gets best answered,” Cashman said, “when we get past the imaging and the doctor’s interpretation that he’s good to start baseball activities and conditioning and stuff like that.”