Yankees activate Aaron Judge from IL

He’s back! After nearly two months out of action with a toe injury, Aaron Judge has returned to the Yankees’ roster, as the team has activated him from the 10-day injured list ahead of Friday’s game against the Orioles.

Judge has been out of the Yankees’ lineup since June 3rd, when he sprained his toe after hitting it on the base of a Dodger Stadium wall, having crashed through said wall to make a catch. The Yankees have dearly missed him since then, as they’ve often looked listless at the plate without the captain. They’ve averaged just around four runs per game since then, which, which is well below the league average of 4.59, and the Yankees’ total average of 4.37.

Despite that, there is still some amount of trepidation around Judge’s activation. Seemingly every week since the injury, there has been news that came out about it that made things seem less than ideal. Despite that, he’s resumed facing live pitching and is by all accounts good enough to at least take the field. The Yankees clearly need him if they want to stay serious in their playoff contention.

In his place, the Yankees are sending down Oswald Peraza. He came up a few weeks ago after Josh Donaldson went down with an injury of his own. While Peraza impressed a bit a first after his recall, he’s struggled to nail down a big league role since then. There are other options to send down and/or get rid of that you may have preferred, but Judge in place of Peraza will most definitely be a big addition to the lineup.

The past couple weeks with Judge out have often produced some very boring Yankees’ games, so hopefully The Captain’s return will help in that regard.