Yankees to place Aaron Judge on disabled list with fractured wrist

Hold your breath, Yankees fans. Aaron Judge departed from tonight’s game against the Royals with an apparent injury. The right fielder was struck on the wrist by a Jakob Junis fastball in the first inning.

Judge remained in the game, scoring on a Giancarlo Stanton sacrifice fly just a few batters later. He would get another plate appearance, singling off a Junis slider. Miguel Andujar pinch hit for Judge in the bottom of the fourth, however, which spelled that something was wrong.

According to Marc Carig, he’s off to receive a MRI.

Listeners to the YES broadcast would hear Paul O’Neill trying to ease fans’ minds. He downplayed concern and provided a hopeful outlook. David Cone, however, did not share this optimism. He reminded listeners that the team has an x-ray machine at Yankee Stadium. A MRI suggested, to him, something of an unfortunate development.

Losing Judge for any length of time would obviously be a devastating blow to the Yankees’ lineup. There’s no way to realistically replace his production. So, cross your fingers and hope he’s okay.

UPDATE (11:15 PM): The Yankees announced that Judge suffered a chip fracture in his right wrist. He will miss at least three weeks.

The Yankees will probably place Judge on the disabled list at some point tomorrow. In the span of a week, the team lost two of its three biggest power threats. That’s pretty terrible when you consider they’re in the middle of a hotly contest division race. With five days to go until the trade deadline, you wonder if Brian Cashman is exploring adding a bat now.

Pinstripe Alley will have more on this shortly. Get well soon, Judge.