Yankees activate Aaron Judge after three-month layoff
· Yahoo Sports
Our long tri-state area is over: Aaron Judge is back. After missing over three months with a right rib fracture, the Yankee captain will return to face the Colorado Rockies tomorrow night.
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The YES Network teased Judge’s return earlier today on Twitter/X:
Returning soon. pic.twitter.com/oT4P3RWybp
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) September 7, 2026
And the Yankees made his return official tonight:
No further questions, Your Honor. pic.twitter.com/9VL7uaefXW
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 8, 2026
That we’d see two official hype videos for a player coming back from injury underscores just how hotly anticipated Judge’s return has become. The club is in need of his production and presence in the lineup, that much is certain. But beyond that, this is a team and a fan base that is desperate to see their talisman, their anchor, healthy and on the field.
Judge is that and more. Before he injured his rib, Judge remained an All-Universe hitter; he had a 1.060 OPS on May 5th. Crucially, the Yankee offense was excellent with Judge in the lineup, their 116 wRC+ pacing baseball on May 30th, the day before Judge finally was removed from the lineup. They’ve run a woeful 90 wRC+ in the time since, 29th in MLB, better than only the Angels.
If I’d told you before the season that Judge would get injured in April, and that the Yankee offense would limp through the entire summer without him, you may have resigned yourself to the likelihood that this was a lost season in New York. But the Yankees themselves have not done so. The offense has been putrid at times, yes, but this is a team that has held the line without Judge. They see him return to a roster that both needs him and has survived without him, and thus has put itself in position to make a run now that he’s back. The Yankees as currently constructed have everything thing they need now to win the World Series (as they are fond of reminding us).
It all begins anew tomorrow night, when Judge takes the field at Yankee Stadium and the Yankees try to mount a last-minute bid for the AL East. He’ll do so without having faced in-game pitching since May, again highlighting how badly the Yankees want him back in the lineup, and Judge’s supreme confidence in his own otherworldly skills. Will he be rusty? Is he fully healthy? We’ll have to wait to find out the answers to those questions, but after waiting three months, we’re all ready to see Aaron Judge, at last, back in the Bronx.