Yankees expect injured slugger to return on Tuesday

The New York Yankees have been dealing with several significant injuries this season, but finally received a little bit of encouraging news on that front. Reigning MVP winner Aaron Judge is expected to return to the lineup on Tuesday, when the team plays host to the Oakland A's. 

Judge has been sidelined since April 27 with a hip injury.

Manager Aaron Boone said on Saturday that Judge has been showing improvement and that he is on track for Tuesday. 

"I think he's doing really well," Boone said, as relayed by ESPN before the team's game against the Tampa Bay Rays. "I think we're going to be in a good spot come Tuesday to where he's done everything for several days."

"That was the calculus in this weekend," the manager added. "It's like, do we want to push him back out there if he's 85, 90%. 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."

The Yankees' lineup has struggled without Judge's presence, while the team entered play on Saturday having won just two of the first seven games without the big slugger.

Not only have the Yankees struggled to win in his absence, their offense has been the worst in the league during that seven-game stretch.  

Judge carried the Yankees lineup throughout the 2022 season, hitting an American League record 62 home runs and nearly winning the Triple Crown. 

He has proven to be an irreplaceable part of their organization. 

That obviously says a lot about Judge's greatness, but it also makes you question the roster general manager Brian Cashman has constructed, when a team with one of the largest payrolls in baseball is so dependent on just one player. 

The Yankees entered play on Saturday with a 17-16 record and in last place in the American League East, 10 games behind the division-leading Rays, their opponent this weekend. That deficit could grow depending on how the rest of the weekend goes.