The New York Yankees won their Wild Card Series over the Boston Red Sox with relative ease, outscoring their rivals 18-2 in the two-game sweep. They did so without their biggest name and best player, three-time AL MVP Aaron Judge, and now will try to do the same in the American League Division Series.
The Yankees will again not have their captain for the ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays, beginning Saturday at Tropicana Field. Judge is not on New York's ALDS roster, the team announced Saturday morning ahead of its 6:30 p.m. game. Judge, 34, has been on the injured list since Sept. 16 with a calf strain.
The only change from the Wild Card Series roster was the removal of infielder Amed Rosario and addition of reliever Ryan Weathers.
"Ultimately, I obviously decided keeping him off was the best thing," manager Aaron Boone told reporters on Saturday. "Again, I feel like he's getting close, but I feel like for us to get a version of Aaron back and to win a World Series, I feel like this week's important for him to continue to work towards getting back.
"He just started running. He's hit now a couple of days. So I think another several days of doing that and building some endurance, I think, is important. Understanding entirely that we're guaranteed nothing. We don't play well, next week we're home and we don't get it."
Unlike during the regular season, when players can be added to the roster at will, Judge cannot replace another player during this round, barring injury. Had the Yankees chosen to roster him and found that he could not play, removing him would have also invalidated him for the ALCS, as a player being replaced on the roster due to injury, by rule, must be left off the roster for the next round. Forcing a return now could have led to Judge missing more time down the road.
"In the end, I just felt like the best chance for us to get, again, a good version of Aaron was another five, six, seven days of truly building up his running, building up the endurance, getting at-bats, taking BP every day," Boone said on Saturday.
Furthermore, if Judge had served as a designated hitter instead of playing right field in the ALDS, that would have forced Luis García Jr. to the bench with Ben Rice playing first base. García has been productive since the Yankees landed him ahead of the trade deadline, and he was 3 for 5 with a home run in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series.
Judge was sidelined for most of the 2026 regular season due to what was initially termed a bone bruise in his right ribcage that was also affecting his right shoulder. He returned in early September, but was only able to play in seven games before suffering a lower leg injury. As it turns out, the Yankees called the latest injury a right calf strain.
In those seven games after his return from the injured list, without a minor-league rehab assignment, Judge was 4 for 23 (.174) with 13 strikeouts, though he did hit a home run in his sixth game.
In total this season, Judge appeared in 66 games, hitting .241/.360/.511 (.140 OPS+) with 10 doubles, 18 home runs, 41 RBI, 45 runs and 1.9 WAR. The Yankees were 41-25 in games Judge started this season and, now including the playoffs, are 54-43.
The Rays had the best record in the AL this season at 98-64 and won the AL East by 4 ½ games over New York. The Rays won the regular-season series over the Yankees, 7-6.
