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By Keagan Stiefel
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New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge was cleared for "light activity" after undergoing scans on Wednesday.
Judge has not played in a game since suffering a stress fracture his ribs, and although there have been very few positive updates since he was placed on the injured list on May 31 the perennial all-world outfielder feels confident that he will return to the field at some point in 2026.
"I'll be back this season," Judge said on Wednesday, per MLB Media's Bryan Hoch. "I don't know why I wouldn't be. That was always the plan to come back -- sooner than later, definitely -- but I never had a thought of not playing this year."
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Judge was seen stretching, jogging and doing shuffle slides with a resistance band before Wednesday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Yankee Stadium, marking the first real step forward for him since suffering the injury.
"I think that's going to be the ultimate test, is hitting," Judge said. "That's the most violent of it all, more than running or lifting and stuff like that. So, yeah, definitely keep progressing. Everything's feeling great, take another scan, see where it's at. Hopefully adding hitting, throwing, all that down the road."
Judge declined to share whether he has a target return date in mind, but would likely need to undergo another scan before he even starts to swing the bat or start fielding drills. If he does respond well to his current activity, the expectation is that he'll move on to the next step at some point over the next week.
The Yankees' offense has been one of the worst in the big leagues since his departure — ranking 27th in OPS (.671) and 26th in runs scored (216) since June 1 — so, the sooner he can get back, the better.
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