Aaron Judge’s rib not fully healed, Yankees captain still not cleared for baseball activities

NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge’s broken rib has not completely healed, and the New York Yankees captain still hasn’t been cleared to resume baseball activities.

Judge hasn’t played since May 31 because of a stress fracture in his right ribs. He had a scan during the All-Star break and called the result positive news.

“Part of it’s healing. The other part of it’s still trying to bridge together,” the three-time AL MVP said before the Yankees started the second half Friday night against the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Judge and the Yankees were waiting for an evaluation of the scans from Dr. Gregory J. Pearl, chair of the department of vascular surgery at Baylor Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital in Texas. Judge will need another scan before he is cleared for baseball activities and given a timeframe for a return.

“I’m going to wait for the doctors to kind of tell us what to do and what they see when they look at it,” Judge said. “We’ve got a big team of guys looking at this just so we get the best answer and have the right plan.”

Judge is hitting .248 with 17 homers and 38 RBIs but had just one homer in his last 18 games before going on the injured list. The 34-year-old outfielder has done lower-body work, used a treadmill and climbed steps — but no baseball activities or heavy weightlifting. He’s stopped the bicycle work he did earlier during the layoff.

“It’s feeling better. It was a couple weeks that were tough, couldn’t do a lot, but now we’re feeling 10 times better,” he said. “So that was my big complaint, well, if I’m feeling better, how about we start moving? But I think they just don’t want to start adding baseball activities and other stuff and all of a sudden we have a setback and it pushes everything back.”

When he is able to play, Judge doesn’t want to go on a minor league injury rehabilitation assignment.

“I hate rehab games, so I’ve got to talk with them about all that, because why waste at-bats in a rehab game?” Judge said.

New York was 36-23 when he last played but was 18-19 since as the second half began Friday.

“I feel good about the fact that he will be back but it’s just a matter of when,” manager Aaron Boone said.

Fried pitches in minors and other Yankees injury news

Left-hander Max Fried, out since May 14 because of a left elbow bone bruise, made his first rehab start Friday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against Worcester, allowing two runs and five hits over three innings with three strikeouts and no walks. Fried threw 32 of 52 pitches for strikes.

Fried gave up Andrew Knizner’s RBI single in the first and Kenedy Corona’s home run on a changeup in the second. He will have at least one more minor league outing before returning to the Yankees’ rotation.

Shortstop prospect George Lombard Jr. homered for the RailRiders in his return from the injured list. He hadn’t played for Scranton since June 16 because of sprained fingers on his left hand.

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Left-hander Carlos Rodón, who has not pitched since June 28 because of left elbow inflammation, threw 10 pitches off a mound Friday but has not progressed to a bullpen session.

Designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton, who hasn’t played since April 24 because of a strained right calf, started a running progression outdoors.

Clarke Schmidt, coming back from Tommy John surgery on July 11 last year, was set to throw an inning of batting practice Saturday.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb