New York Yankees captain and reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge exited Thursday night's game with the Texas Rangers (NYY 3, TEX 2) with right hip discomfort, the Yankees announced (per Newsday). He left the game in the fourth inning and was replaced in right field by Oswaldo Cabrera.
"We'll see how he's doing tomorrow," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the game (per the New York Post), adding there are no tests scheduled at the moment.
Judge rolled over on his right wrist during an awkward slide Wednesday, but remained in the game. Cameras caught him flexing his right hand after a swing in the second inning Thursday, though apparently his hip is the issue, not his hand. It's unclear if the hip discomfort is related to the awkward slide Wednesday.
Judge went 0 for 2 with two strikeouts prior to exiting Thursday's game. He entered the game with a .267/.358/.522 batting line and six home runs.
Needless to say, losing Judge for any length of time would be a devastating blow to a Yankees offense the entered play Thursday hitting .232/.308/.392 as a team. They rank 20th among the 30 teams with an average of 4.32 runs scored per game. Taking Judge away from that offense for even a few games would be an enormous loss.
The Yankees have been hit hard by injuries early on this season. They're currently without their No. 2 (Carlos Rodón) and No. 3 (Luis Severino) starters, their starting center fielder (Harrison Bader), their DH (Giancarlo Stanton), their top setup man (Jonathan Loàisiga), and several other depth arms.
Judge returned to the Yankees on a massive nine-year, $360 million contract this past offseason. The Yankees named him the 16th captain in franchise history soon thereafter.
