New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge was activated off the 10-day injured list Tuesday after being sidelined since July 25 because of a flexor strain in his right elbow.
Manager Aaron Boone on Monday said Judge would serve as the designated hitter when he first returned to the lineup against the Texas Rangers. The Yankees have lost four consecutive games.
Giancarlo Stanton has been the Yankees’ starting DH for all of his 32 games this season. He sat out the first 70 games of the season because of inflammation in the tendons of both elbows, and Boone said he wouldn’t play the outfield in Texas if Judge did DH during the series.
Judge is hitting an MLB-best .342 this season, and he’s fourth with 37 homers and fifth with 85 RBIs.
The two-time AL MVP hit off Yankees minor league pitchers at the team’s complex in Tampa, Florida, for the second day in a row on Monday. An MRI showed no acute damage to his ulnar collateral ligament and he had a platelet-rich injection July 27.
Boone said the outfielder could also play catch while in Texas, which would help determine when he could return to playing in the field.
In related roster moves, the Yankees placed newly acquired outfielder Austin Slater on the 10-day IL with a left hamstring strain. New York also activated right-hander Mark Leiter Jr. from the injured list, recalled right-hander Yerry de los Santos from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, optioned right-hander Jake Bird to Triple-A and designated right-hander JT Brubaker for assignment.
The Yankees are 5½ games behind the division-leading Toronto Blue Jays and currently occupy the second AL wild-card spot — 2½ games behind the Boston Red Sox — with 49 games left to play in the regular season.
