Aaron Judge Says It's 'Brutal' Being Unable to Play Defense for Yankees amid Injury

The New York Yankees have temporarily limited Aaron Judge to designated hitter duties as he continues to recover from a flexor strain in his right arm, a situation he's found less than appealing.

On Sunday, Judge told reporters it's "brutal" not being able to contribute defensively.

"I'm a ballplayer," he added. "I want to play both sides of the ball and go out there, making plays on defense, helping my team out. I know hitting's important and all that, but I feel like I can impact this team on both sides, so I can't wait to get back out there."

Judge has operated as the designated hitter since returning from the injured list on Aug. 5, and a timeline for his return to right field remains unclear, though he did throw to the bases for the first time since suffering his injury on Sunday.

"The bottom line is we want to do this the right way," manager Aaron Boone told reporters regarding Judge's timeline for returning to the field. "And as much as he wants to be out there and we want him out there, we've got to make sure we want to do everything possible to put ourselves in the best position to not reinjure this."

The issue for the Yankees is that an already woeful defensive team now has to play the normal DH, Giancarlo Stanton, in the outfield to keep his bat in the lineup. Stanton has poor mobility at this stage of his career and is a major downgrade in right field defensively, but he's far too valuable offensively (16 homers, 1.134 OPS in his last 38 games) to keep on the bench.

That perhaps wouldn't be the biggest issue, except the Yankees have played defense this season like the Benny Hill theme song is constantly playing in the background. It's been bad.

It's not a recent phenomenon, either.

"We've got to, obviously, tighten it up," Boone told reporters in late July after the Yankees committed four errors in an 8-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. "Confident we will. We'll continue to work at it. We have good defenders here, but tonight was obviously a rough night for us."

Those nights have continued, and the result has been the Yankees (69-60) dropping to third in the AL East and only holding a three-game advantage over the Kansas City Royals in the chase for a Wild Card berth.

Getting Judge back in the field won't solve all of those defensive woes, but at this point, the Yankees need all the help they can get.