Aaron Judge regrets rushing into offseason program amid rib injury

Aaron Judge is still recovering from a stress fracture in his first right rib, and now he wishes that he had approached the winter a little differently.

Appearing this week on an Instagram Live broadcast with NBA star Damian Lillard, the New York Yankees slugger indicated that he had regrets about rushing into his offseason program instead of giving the rib time to heal.

“It’s going good,” said Judge of his rehab, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “We were in Spring Training, just getting the season going. Having a broken rib, I should be back doing a little more here in about a week or two, and then hopefully have some answers on when the season starts. It’s crazy times.

“I think the consistent swinging and weightlifting throughout the whole offseason really didn’t give it the chance to [heal],” the All-Star added. “If somebody breaks their leg and they’re in a cast, they’re immobilized for a couple weeks or months. You give the bone a chance to heal. But I was [upset] about how the season ended last year, so I went right back to it. We’ve all been through pain, bumps and bruises. In my head, I felt like it was something that I could fight through, and I think that kind of cost me a little bit there.”

Judge, who hit 27 homers and 55 RBIs in 102 games last season, first suffered the injury while attempting a diving catch in right field last September. He then put on a fairly disappointing performance in the postseason as the Yankees lost in the ALCS to the Houston Astros in six games.

The good news is Judge, who also relatedly dealt with a partially collapsed lung, has had extra time to recover because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Yankees sound confident about his ability to return to normal responsibilities, so Judge’s health may be a textbook case of “all’s well that ends well.”