TAMPA, Florida. – Former fielder Aaron Judge and third baseman Gio Urshela return to the New York Yankees lineup for Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The judge was withdrawn from the New York lineup Wednesday night with pain in his left side and missed the opening of Friday’s series against the Rays.
“Just trying to be prudent with him early, not wanting this to be an issue that becomes a problem, and hopefully we’ll be able to get over it and get through it these days,” the manager said on Saturday. Yankees, Aaron Boone.
The judge won a home run, three hits and four RBIs in a 7-2 win over Baltimore Tuesday night, but did not play the 4-3 loss and 11 Yankees innings a day later. New York had a day off on Thursday.
Boone said he believed the pain came from “general wear and tear” during the first few days of the season. He believes the inconvenience could stem from the time the judge made additional changes while serving as a designated hitter on Sunday.
“I don’t think there was anything specific or anything,” Boone said. “I think it was just the gradual workload. It probably swayed a lot, doing a lot of cages and things like that that caused some pain that developed over time, but I don’t think there was a what. “
Judge, rookie of the year in the 2017 American League, lost 142 games from 2018 to ’20, moving to the injured list at various points due to a fractured right wrist, a left oblique strain and twice for the right beef strains. A rib was also broken last March, but it was ready for Opening Day after the pandemic delayed the start of the season.
Urshela was included on the COVID injured list on Friday due to the side effects of a vaccine. He was originally in the starting lineup, but the Yankees made the change shortly before the game.
“We were expecting that,” Boone said. “He was a little out in the open, along with a couple of other guys from our day off. In fact, he came in late yesterday morning, he felt good and he was ready to go and he was in training. But then he started to have symptoms again that he felt the day before and in fact at the end of yesterday’s game he felt [like] himself again. And then last night I felt good. And then I saw his smiling face walking around my office about 30 minutes ago with his thumbs up. So, we feel like we’re out of the woods and ready to go. ”
Infielder Mike Ford was removed from the alternate site and activated for the series. Any player included on the COVID injured list does not count on the 40-man list. The COVID injury list also does not require a minimum stay.
Also on Saturday, the Yankees activated the newly acquired Rougned Odor, which came from the Rangers in a deal on Tuesday.
Odor did not reach the Rangers Opening Day list and was designated to be assigned on April 1st. He is a left-handed batsman and the Yankees have a mostly right-wing lineup.
Odor is a second baseman, but also played third in the spring workouts.
ESPN’s Marly Rivera contributed to this report.