When Yankees Expect Aaron Judge to Return from Elbow Injury, Latest Update on All-Star

The New York Yankees are without their star after Aaron Judge suffered a flexor strain that landed him on the 10-day injured list.

ESPN's Jeff Passan provided an update on Judge's injury on Tuesday's episode of Pardon the Interruption.

"Let's also look at what the injury is. It is a flexor injury in his arm and connected to his elbow," Passan said. "It's the sort of thing where even if he can't throw, he still will be able to hit, he will be able to DH. And the hope is to get him back around that 10-day mark off the injured list. And to ease him in after a week or two of DH, back to playing in the outfield."

The 10-day timeline would have him back in the lineup on Monday, Aug. 4, when the Yankees play the Texas Rangers.

Though the Yankees will have to manage without Judge for a bit, they avoided major disaster since his UCL is still intact, manager Aaron Boone said. Boone also said last week that the plan was for Judge to start at designated hitter upon returning to the lineup. With Judge at designated hitter, Boone said he discussed the possibility of Giancarlo Stanton playing in the outfield.

Even if Judge is limited to just the designated hitter spot and can't be in the outfield, the Yankees will be more than happy to still have his offense at the ready. Judge is having another MVP-caliber season, leading the majors in batting average (.342), recording the third-most home runs (37) and the third-most RBI (85). Judge also has the best OPS in the majors at 1.160.

New York has struggled recently but is still in the postseason mix thanks to a hot start. The Yankees currently hold the top wild-card spot at 57-49, but they're just one game ahead in the wild-card race, so they can't afford a sluggish ending to the regular season.