ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- For the second straight round, Aaron Judge is not on the New York Yankees' roster for the American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays as he deals with a right calf strain, but the club did include fellow slugger Giancarlo Stanton and left-hander Ryan Weathers among its 26 players.
The Yankees will carry 11 pitchers and 15 position players against the Rays. The one change from the wild-card roster is replacing utility man Amed Rosario with Weathers. They had until 10 a.m. Saturday to submit their roster ahead of Game 1, scheduled for 6:38 p.m. at Tropicana Field.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he opted to keep Judge off the roster after meeting with Judge and Mike Shuck, the team's director of sports medicine and rehabilitation, following New York's workout Friday.
"I obviously decided keeping him off was the best thing," Boone said. "Again, I feel like he's getting close, but I feel like for us to get a version of Aaron back and to win a World Series, I feel like this week's important for him to continue to work towards getting back. He just started running. He's hit now a couple of days.
"So I think another several days of doing that and building some endurance, I think, is important, understanding entirely that we're guaranteed nothing. We don't play well, next week we're home and we don't get it. But I feel like for us to get a good version of Aaron, this was the right thing to do."
New York carried Stanton as a pinch hitter in the wild-card round against the Boston Red Sox, but he did not take an at-bat in the two games. He will continue as a pinch-hit option in the ALDS. Stanton has not played in a game since April thanks to three different calf strains.
Weathers hasn't pitched since exiting a start Aug. 22 with a forearm flexor strain. He joins the roster as a one-inning reliever with restrictions, including not being cleared to pitch on consecutive days. With an off day after Game 1 and another after Game 2, the schedule works out favorably for his potential usage.
"He looks healthy," Boone said. "He feels healthy. I feel like he's going to be really important for us moving forward."
Judge, meanwhile, has not played in a game since straining the soleus muscle in his right calf on Sept. 16 in his seventh game back from missing more than three months with a fractured rib.
He was placed on the injured list again three days later and received a platelet-poor plasma injection to boost healing before resuming baseball activities as the regular season concluded. All along he voiced his determination to be ready for the start of the postseason despite dealing with what manager Aaron Boone described as a "moderate grade" strain.
Judge, 34, proceeded to face live pitching for the first time Monday -- the night before rosters for the wild-card series were to be submitted -- as he pushed to convince the team he was ready. Team officials considered including Judge on the roster, but they informed him that night that they would proceed without him. New York still routed the Red Sox, outscoring them 18-2 in a two-game sweep at Yankee Stadium to advance to the ALDS.
Judge seemingly made progress this week. He ran in right field before Game 1 of the wild-card series Tuesday. He took live batting practice again at the organization's Double-A affiliate Wednesday before Game 2 and again at Yankee Stadium on Thursday before the team flew to Florida. He participated in workouts Friday at the team's minor league complex in Tampa and later took part in the club's main workout at Tropicana Field, where he took batting practice on the field with teammates but did not run on the field.
Boone on Friday said Tropicana Field's turf surface would factor into the team's decision-making "a little bit" and hinted at the possibility of carrying Judge on the roster but him being limited early in the series. Ultimately, the Yankees, who are 54-43 without Judge this season, decided to move forward without him again. Barring an injury substitution, the Yankees will need to beat the AL East champs and advance to the ALCS for Judge to have the opportunity to play again in 2026.
"I think he's ready to go up and take an at-bat," Boone said. "At what level? He's only had a couple days of hitting, but I feel like that part is there, But in the end, I just felt like the best chance for us to get, again, a good version of Aaron was another five, six, seven days of truly building up his running, building up the endurance, getting at-bats, taking BP every day. Those kinds of things."