The Yankees are still trying to figure out how to best use Aaron Judge in right field.
And the short, soft throw Judge made to Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a two-run single in the first inning during his return to right on Friday is something the Yankees may have to get accustomed to — at least for the time being.
Asked prior to Saturday’s game against the Blue Jays if that throw was what the Yankees should expect from Judge in the early going, Aaron Boone said, “Right now [it is]. We worked [on it] the last couple of weeks. If you guys were paying attention, we worked on different creative cuts and stuff like that. We’ll continue to do that and hopefully evolve it as we go.”
If that’s the case, Chisholm will likely be expected to go deeper into right field on balls hit to Judge with runners on base.
And that play was part of an unsteady return to the position in the loss to Toronto after Judge hadn’t played the field since suffering a right elbow flexor strain on July 25.
Judge was at DH Saturday, which was by design, according to Boone.
“That was kind of the plan,’’ Boone said of Judge at DH and Giancarlo Stanton out of the lineup after he was the DH Friday. “Then we’ll see what [Sunday] brings. Having [Stanton] down today, both could be an option at DH and the other in right field [Sunday]. We’ll get through today and see.”
But the Yankees still intend to use Judge in right on a fairly regular basis, even after Toronto manager John Schneider acknowledged the obvious following Friday’s game when he said the Blue Jays “wanted to test” Judge’s arm when they sent Daulton Varsho home from second base on Nathan Lukes’ two-out single to right.
Boone said that the approach by opposing teams would “not necessarily” impact how they use Judge on defense.
“It’s gonna be based on how he’s doing and hopefully, as we go, he has continued improvements,” Boone said. “We’re playing the long game on it. The reality is, when he’s out there, he brings a lot of value.”
But Judge is clearly not at full strength, and the Yankees can’t predict when that might change.
“We’ll see as we go,” Boone said of when Judge might be back to normal. “We’ll be smart along the way. Hopefully a steady improvement happens as he gets out there more regularly.”
And the goal remains getting Judge in right field every day.
“Sure [it is],’’ Boone said. “We’ll see. We can’t predict the future, but that would be great if he gets back to that, especially as good as he is out there. … He’s improved a lot over the last month. The goal is to get him all the way there and hopefully that comes.’’
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
