Aaron Judge had a bat in his hands on Monday.
It was a Wiffle Ball bat.
Judge continued his work to get back from a right wrist fracture by taking fly balls in the outfield, too. Yankees manager Aaron Boone continued to give daily updates on the minutest details of Judge's rehab, including a detailed explanation of how hard it is to swing a bat or throw a baseball when you have an as-yet unhealed wrist fracture (in case that wasn't obvious already).
The Yankees have admitted their original estimate of a three-week absence when Judge was first injured on July 26 was way off. But Boone didn't flinch when asked if he still believed Judge would play for the Yankees again this season.
"I'm confident he'll be back at full strength," Boone said.
In the meantime, Judge will continue to work to the point where he can swing a bat. A real one.
"Just gradually starting to introduce some more baseball-type activities as he continues to improve," Boone said. "He's not really ready yet to quite get the bat in his hand, but improving."
In other injury news, Didi Gregorius was expected to see the team doctor on Monday for an update on his left heel contusion.
"He's doing well," Boone said. "We've seen significant improvement with him every day. Gave me a big thumb's up today like he always does. So we'll see how it goes with the doctor."
Aroldis Chapman has shown a "little bit of improvement" with his left knee, Boone said.
"But we're still in the, I think, early days of responding to the injection he had," Boone said. "As much as he can kind of just staying off it here for these next few days, letting the injection take hold and hopefully a little bit of down time and rest time before we start ramping him back up."
