New York Yankees Notebook: Judge, LeMahieu and Injury Updates

DENVER, Colo. –– Aaron Boone was asked whether the New York Yankees should expect to win all three games against a club on a collision course with the worst record in the history of the Majors. The Philadelphia Phillies, the other team from the East, had just completed a four-game sweep of the 8-42 Colorado Rockies.

”Obviously, it’s been a tough start to the season for them. No other way to put it,” Boone said pre-game. “That being said, I think for those of you, for those of us that have been been around this game for a long, long time… Baseball, man. It’s baseball. Anything can happen on any given night.”

And anything did happen during a 3-2 loss to Colorado who secured only their ninth win of the season. Per Elias, the victory by the Rockies (.160) over the Yankees (.612) represented a tie for the second-largest winning percentage disparity (-.452) for a team at least 50 games into the season in the Expansion Era (since 1961).

New York had been winners of four-straight and 11 of 14. However, they began their nine-game, 10-day road trip at Coors Field with a loss. Tanner Gordon, 0-7 in his first eight starts in the Majors, allowed two runs over six innings of work for his first big league win.

Early in the contest, Aaron Judge was at the center of the action in his very first regular season game in Denver. Judge, now in his 10th season, had played a Major League game in 37 different ballparks, but never Coors Field.

The 33-year-old singled in his first at-bat off the Rockies’ rookie starter before scoring on Paul Goldschmidt’s first triple in pinstripes to give N.Y. a 1-0 lead. Judge took back the lead for the Bronx Bombers, 2-1, with his 17th home run of the year, a 365-ft blast that tied him for most in MLB.

In the top of the eighth, Trent Grisham drew a five-pitch leadoff walk to bring Judge to the plate for the fourth time in the ballgame. Leading 3-2, reliever Seth Halvorsen went directly at the reigning American League MVP.

“There really hasn’t been a situation where I’ve said, ‘Man, I can’t believe they’re not walking (Judge),’” Boone said. “I don’t know how many intentional walks he’s had. I don’t know how many unintentional intentional walks he’s had. So, there haven’t been a lot of situations where I was like I can’t believe they’re not walking. I’ll put it that way.”

One reason interim manager Warren Schaeffer was confident of his man was the pure velocity of his 25-year-old rookie. Halvorsen delivered the two fastest pitches Judge has seen this season. First, a 100.9-mph fastball that Judge fouled. Two 89-mph sliders were following a 101.9-mph four-seamer that Judge hit into his sixth double play of the season to end their best threat.

Despite the modest — for Judge, that is — 2-for-4 performance, Judge still leads MLB in batting average by 37 points, on-base percentage by 30 points, slugging percentage by 108 points and on-base-plus-slugging by 146 points.

LeHomecoming For LeMahieu

DJ LeMahieu returned to Denver for only the second time since leaving the Rockies for the Yankees in the 2018-19 offseason. Media, stadium personnel and former teammates were excited to see one of the more integral members of the club back when it was a perennial contender. 

“The thing I’m most proud about playing here was my first three or four years were pretty tough,” he admitted. “We were kind of in it late, but kind of fell off, and the last two years making our playoffs here was a huge accomplishment for this organization. It was just that’s the biggest thing I can take away as a memory.”

Boone also noticed the embraces and applause coming from fans in attendance at Coors Field. 

“I think it’s very meaningful just knowing that as a (former) player doing that, especially when it’s kind of interleague where — what, we’ve been here a couple times since DJ came to the Yankees — so it doesn’t happen very often,” Boone said. “I think it’s always cool for a player to come back and see some familiar faces, and in DJ’s case, where he had a lot of success and where, in a lot of ways, it all began.”

LeMahieu was acquired by Colorado in Dec. 2011 in one of the better trades in franchise history. He was a two-time All-Star and won four NL Gold Glove Awards at second base. 

When LeMahieu left in free agency following the 2018 season, it was the first major domino to fall for the Rockies. The club fell apart in July 2019 to start six consecutive losing seasons. Nolan Arenado grew discontent after seeing LeMahieu leave, among other issues, and, once Arenado was traded, Trevor Story did not want to re-sign with the club.

The 36-year-old has now played as many seasons (7) with the Yankees as he has with the Rockies. An injury plagued 2024 brought into question what LeMahieu could provide the club in 2025. So far, Boone likes what he’s seen.

“I feel like he’s in a good place right now, physically, and he’s been bouncing back pretty well, and hopefully that continues for us with him playing a big role here,” Boone said of LeMahieu.

Though the two-time batting title winner — once in the NL with Colorado and once in the AL with New York — went 0-for-2 with a walk on Friday, he’s hit rather well against the Rockies in eight career games: .467/.500/.633 (14-for-30) with nine, two doubles, one home run, three runs batted in and two walks.

Injury Updates

Jazz Chisholm Jr. has missed 19 games since April 30 with a right oblique strain. Boone said the 27-year-old will start to hit velocity this weekend before going down to Tampa to potentially take some live at-bats sometime next week. It’s unclear how they’ll address going out on a rehab assignment for Chisholm Jr.

In his stead, the Yankees have used Jorbit Vivas at second base in 10 games, more than any other player. Vivas made history on Thursday against the Texas Rangers with a solo home run, his first in the big leagues. The 24-year-old from Venezuela became only the third player in franchise history to hit his first Major League home run in a 1-0 win.

News on Marcus Stroman, out with left knee inflammation since April 12, was even more vague. 

“Just continuing to build up,” Boone said of Stroman. “I’m not sure when he has a side (session) next, but hopefully we’ll get to a point where we get him back to a live (session) and see how the knee responds to that.”