Yankees Pull Judge With Leg Tightness

The New York Yankees removed Aaron Judge in the sixth inning of Wednesday's game against the Minnesota Twins with right lower-leg tightness, the club announced from Target Field. Heliot Ramos pinch-hit for Judge to open the sixth and struck out. New York trailed 2-0 when the captain left the field.

Judge was 0-for-2 with two strikeouts before the exit and grimaced on his final at-bat, a detail that traveled quickly from the YES Network feed into every Yankees group chat. Early clubhouse notes said there was no further update in the moment. That is the board as of the midgame announcement, not a multi-week stamp and not an automatic injured-list trip.

Fresh off the rib return

Judge has appeared in six games since coming back from a rib fracture that cost him about four months. This tightness is a lower-leg issue, not a replay of the rib. theScore noted he was hitting .174/.208/.304 with 13 strikeouts in 23 at-bats since rejoining the lineup, a cold stretch that already had fans talking even before Wednesday's early exit.

That small sample was already noisy. A midgame removal for tightness is the kind of flag Yankees fans watch with one eye on September standings and one eye on October readiness. New York still needs his bat every night it can get it, especially with the American League playoff picture tightening around every half-game.

Fantasy managers who rode Judge back from the IL should treat Wednesday as a hold-and-monitor night until the next evaluation lands. Do not invent a long absence from one midgame removal. Do stash a replacement outfielder for Thursday if your league locks early.

What comes next at Target Field

Further evaluation is next. Watch Thursday's lineup card and any morning updates from the club. If Judge is limited or scratched, the outfield math shifts toward whoever is hottest on the bench and toward Ramos after the pinch-hit look. If Judge is back in the order, Wednesday becomes a cautionary note in the rearview rather than a crisis graphic.

The sourced story is simple. Judge left with right lower-leg tightness, Ramos replaced him, and the Yankees gave no firm timetable in the first note. Keep the rib history in context without rewriting it as the same injury. Keep the grimace in context without inventing an MRI result the club has not published.

Captain out of a midweek game in Minnesota is never a quiet graphic for a fan base that waited months to see No. 99 healthy again. Wait for the evaluation. Then check the next card. Until then, the only honest board is tightness, early exit, and more tests coming.

Tightness flagged. Evaluation next. That is the Yankees board tonight.