00:00Aaron Judge is back. After spending the last three plus months on the injured list with a
00:04right rib stress fracture, the Yankees captain will be making his long-awaited return to the
00:09Yankees lineup on Tuesday night against the Rockies at Yankee Stadium. Seemed trending this
00:14way after Judge spent the last week on the West Coast with the Yankees kind of checking off the
00:20final boxes of his rehab. Saw him running the bases a lot, taking on field batting practice.
00:24He was hitting off high-velocity pitching machines underneath. And then Monday afternoon at Yankee
00:30Stadium, it was an off day, but Judge was there facing live hitting or live pitching, which was
00:34basically the last hurdle he needed to clear. You know, at first it seemed like maybe later in the
00:40Rockies series or even the Mets series this weekend was more realistic, but, you know, all along Judge
00:45was hitting to get back. He said on Friday he was mad it's taken this long, so, you know, he
00:49was pushing
00:50all along to skip a rehab assignment, which obviously he's won out in that battle. And he'll
00:55be in the lineup on Tuesday night. Now he's going to probably be finishing off his buildup in the
01:00majors, so, you know, the first couple games back might be five to seven innings in the field, or
01:06maybe it's a, you know, he plays Tuesday, he's off Wednesday. You know, there may be some DH days
01:11mixed in there just because he is still kind of getting his, you know, stamina back, you know,
01:15standing in, you know, playing three hours and standing in the field and all that, which
01:20it's tough to fully replicate, although Judge did a lot of stuff over the last few days,
01:24last trip to kind of simulate that as best he can, you know, hitting in the cage, sitting
01:30down, going back later, hitting in the cage, you know, staying with some defensive drills.
01:34He's sitting on some bullpen sessions of his teammates to track live pitching to get his
01:38eyes adjusted to it. So, you know, we'll see what form he comes back in, but, you know,
01:43the Yankees will take him in any fashion at this point. They got 19 games left to play.
01:48They're trailing the Rays by four games for the division and only have a two-game lead
01:52over the Red Sox for the top AL wildcard. So, you know, he's a back-to-back AL MVP.
01:57They think he's the best player in baseball and should give them a big boost, not just,
02:02you know, physically in the lineup, but mentally as well as they kind of head down the stretch here.
