"Everybody's Moderate is a Little Different. I Don't Know Why He Used Those Words" - Aaron Judge Didn't Seem Pleased With Aaron Boone's Assessment Of His Calf Injury And Now It Might Not Be Off The Table That He Plays Next Week When The Postseason Begins

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If there's one thing the Yankees are consistently a train wreck with, it's injury news. For whatever reason nothing is ever normal when it comes to handling a player's injury, telling the public what's going on, timetables, you name it. Almost every time they just throw up all over themselves and botch the situation. That's holding true currently with the Aaron Judge calf drama unfolding. 

After initially saying the doctors did not tell them what grade of strain the calf was (total bullshit btw) a few days ago Aaron Boone came out and said that Judge has a "moderate grade" strain which he expects will hold him out for next week's Wild Card series. 

Then yesterday as the Yankees were getting ready to play their game against the Rays, Jorge Castillo came out with a report that Judge told him he intends to play in the series against Boston. A total shift in what everyone was thinking. 

After the game Judge spoke to the regular Yankees media, seemingly frustrated at the fact that Boone described the strain as "moderate." I would guess this stems from the idea that Judge doesn't like injury news about himself getting out there if it's not coming from him. He's also probably very frustrated at how this whole season has unfolded for him. 

Seems like there's a bit of a disagreement between Judge and Boone/the trainers here, or at least a misunderstanding. Judge's words don't exactly guarantee he's going to be back and that he's healed from the calf injury. There is a chance that the strain is a little less severe than the public was led on to believe, but even so this would be a very quick turnaround from the initial injury and Game 1 of the Wild Card series next Tuesday. You risk re-injury with a calf big time, not to mention more destructive scenarios like his achilles rupturing. Supposedly the complicated parts of the calf here have to do with the achilles. 

Here's the hard conversation to have. Is this worth it? If Judge does in fact push through and play, what version of him are you getting here? He wasn't 100% when he returned from the rib fracture and now you know he'll be compromised here. Are you getting 40% of Judge? 30%? It's hard to say you don't want Judge out there, but what are you getting from him? 

From a roster perspective Judge would almost certainly have to DH if he's playing. He can talk about fielding all he wants, but that can't be possible. So if he's DHing that means Ben Rice has to play first because you can't sit his bat. That means you have a poor first baseman in the field with an infield that isn't exactly filled with defensive stalwarts making it easy on the position. Because of that Rice is likely getting subbed out late for defense in place of Goldy or Garcia. Not exactly ideal to take out a guy who has 41 bombs on the season, but that's kinda what they'd have to do with Judge at DH. 

All of this is a mess. If I were to guess Judge is off the Wild Card roster and they re-evaluate if they make it further. Just feels way too soon to play through a tricky calf injury like this. Maybe Judge doesn't care about the worst case scenario since we're heading towards a potential full-season lockout next year? He's not getting any younger and the Yankees have the best pitching they've had in two decades. Tough to be a part of that and look on from the sideline. At the same time, sometimes your body has limits.

If I know this team well, and I do, they'll botch this to epic proportions. Can't wait til next week. 

P.S. The only way I see Boone ever getting fired is if he loses Judge's support in the clubhouse. This could be the way.