No. 99 is on the road back. 

Consider Wednesday afternoon the first step. 

A day after an MRI showed his fractured rib had healed enough for him to begin light activity, including outdoor running and upper-body work in the weight room, Judge was on the field in pinstripes with his teammates jogging in the outfield and stretching.

Later he expressed a belief it’s not about if he will return this year, but when. 

“Oh, I’ll be back this season. I don’t know why I wouldn’t be,” Judge said. “That was always the plan to come back — sooner than later, definitely — but I never had a thought of not playing this year.” 

“It was great. Moving fine, moving great. My biggest thing is I wanted to start testing it a little bit and see what we got, especially after getting some good news.” 

Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees looks on during the fifth inning against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at Rate Field in Chicago, Illinois. Getty Images

On Monday, general manager Brian Cashman said he remained “very optimistic” that Judge would come back at some point but couldn’t offer a guarantee. That was before this latest dose of good news. 

The three-time MVP has been on the injured list since May 31 after suffering a stress fracture to his rib. There is obviously a long way to go for Judge, a lengthy buildup required considering how long he has been out. Judge will need another MRI before he can advance to baseball activities. The rib isn’t completely healed. But it has improved enough to take this important first step. He doesn’t have a timeline at the moment. 

“I wish it was completely healed and the fracture is gone and [I can] start playing tomorrow, but that’s not the case,” he said. “I got a broken rib, so you’re going to feel it, but it’s healing up. 

“That’s the progress we want to see, so we can start doing some more, testing it and see where we’re at. We’re running out of days. We got 52 days left, 53 days left. We’ve got to get back out there.” 

Manager Aaron Boone added: “It’s more symptom-based now as he starts to introduce things. The running outside is new, and some of the upper-body resistance stuff he’ll be able to do. Then as he tolerates that, [he will] start moving into baseball activities at some point.” 

The Yankees have missed Judge a lot, as expected. They have gone 28-27 without him, and the offense has struggled massively. In his absence, the Yankees are averaging just under four runs per game, compared to 5.2 with him. They currently sit four games behind the AL East-leading Rays and only lead the third-place Red Sox by two games. 

Aaron Judge (99) and Giancarlo Stanton (27) work out and chat in the outfield before the game on August 5, 2026 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY. Robert Sabo for NY Post

Cashman did add two bats ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline in Luis García Jr. from the Nationals and Heliot Ramos from the Giants, and Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger are working their way back from injuries. 

“We got the hitters we wanted, I think that’s the biggest thing especially now and the position we’re in,” Judge said. “We’re trying to chase down the Rays and win the division. That’s the most important thing. We played the wild-card [series] last year. It’s always a coin flip, you never know what’s going to happen. Our goal is to win the division, set ourselves up to try to win the World Series.” 

Nobody would make more of an impact than Judge, of course. Before the injury, he was slashing .248/.375/.533 with 17 home runs, 38 RBIs and an OPS of .907 in 59 games. He left little doubt Wednesday that he intends to return. The next hurdle is advancing to baseball activities. 

“That’s going to be the ultimate test, is hitting, that’s the most violent of it all, more than running or lifting, stuff like that,” he said. “Once we keep progressing, everything’s feeling great, then we start another scan, see where it’s at. Hopefully add hitting, throwing down the road.”