Yankees' Aaron Judge Expected to Return from Hip Injury Tuesday vs. Athletics

The New York Yankees will have their captain back soon.

Aaron Judge, the 2022 AL MVP, went down with a hip strain April 27, though manager Aaron Boone said the slugger will return to the lineup Tuesday.

"I think he's doing really well," Boone said Saturday. "I think we're going to be in a good spot come Tuesday to where he's done everything for several days."

Boone mentioned how the team was not interested in rushing Judge's recovery.

"That was the calculus in this weekend," he said. "It's like, do we want to push him back out there if he's 85, 90 percent. I wasn't comfortable doing that just because I don't want a strain to turn into a bad situation where we're talking six, eight weeks."

Judge hit an AL-record 62 home runs last season and re-signed with the Yankees for nine years, $360 million in the offseason. He is hitting .261/.352/.511 with six home runs in 2023.

The Yankees have not lived up to expectations this season, as they sit in last place in the AL East and 10 games behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays. The Bronx Bombers have continued to struggle without Judge's services, going 2-5 since his injury and sporting the lowest run total in the league.

Judge is slated to return to the lineup against the Oakland Athletics at Yankee Stadium. He has been working out at the team's minor league complex in Tampa.