Yankees’ Aaron Judge Banks on Experimental Medical Therapy: ‘This is the First Time I’ve Done This’ | Klapisch

NEW YORK — Yankee Stadium was cold and empty Monday afternoon as players took their final private batting practice session before the postseason. The atmosphere was calm. You’d never know Aaron Judge was auditioning for a roster spot in the AL Wild Card Series, taking swings while manager Aaron Boone and his coaches watched in the background.

Yankees decision-makers waited until the last possible moment to decide Judge’s status — in part to gauge the progress he has made following a serious calf injury. But BP’s exercise was primarily motivated by respect for the captain, who is desperately trying to speed up the healing process.

The results were disappointing. Judge failed to get the ball out of the infield in four at-bats against Elmer Rodriguez and Ryan Weathers. He walked two times, struck out and was called out to the pitcher.

The session ended without the breakthrough Judge had hoped for. Despite the accumulation. No. 99 was left off the roster as the Yankees decided Tuesday morning to activate Giancarlo Stanton as a right-handed power threat. However, Judge’s return during the Division Series is still possible, even probable.

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The fact that Judge is this close to being game ready is a borderline miracle. Moderate soleus muscle strain, like Judge’s, usually takes 4 to 6 weeks to heal. It’s only been 13 days, and yet Judge says, “It feels good.” »

So what is his secret? Determination helps. So make good genes. But there’s another helping hand: an emerging medical technique called PPP injections.

Judge received an injection from Dr. Chris Ahmad, the Yankees’ doctor, last week. The slugger is banking on this therapy as the difference between helping the Yankees in October and having to delay his return until 2027.

PPP (platelet-poor plasma) is related to PRP (platelet-rich plasma). The two liquids are extracted from a patient’s blood sample after spinning it in a centrifuge. PRP is dense in platelets which promote healing of tendons and joints. It has been around since the mid-2000s and was popularized by Tiger Woods and other athletes.

Conversely, PPP does not contain platelets, but it has still gained ground over the past two to three years. Orthopedists have found that it is better suited to working on damaged muscles than joints and tendons, and produces less inflammation.

Despite doctors’ growing confidence in the PPP, insurance companies still view it as experimental because of its novelty.

They systematically refuse PRP and PPP requests. Patients must pay for the treatment out of pocket, usually between $1,000 and $1,500 per injection.

That doesn’t matter to Judge, who makes $40 million a year. He’s just looking for a way to get back on the field. He trusted the Yankees medical staff.

“I’ve done a lot of PRP, a lot of things, but this is my first time doing this,” Judge said of injecting PRP. “So far it’s going pretty well. I’ve had a good response. We’ll know the results in a few days.”

Medical experts say the judge’s optimism is justified.

“Preliminary studies show that players recover sooner from muscle injuries than they otherwise would have,” said Dr. Spencer Stein, an orthopedic sports surgeon at NYU Langone Health.

“We’re seeing good success rates, especially among athletes. I would say (PPP) is promising, but we don’t have big studies to really latch on to yet.”

Assuming Judge can avoid any setbacks, his return, regardless of when it happens, could still be risky. It’s one thing for Judge to make decisions in a controlled environment like Monday’s session. But Judge intends to play the outfield again, which could put tremendous, spontaneous pressure on the calf.

Even an instant acceleration out of the batter’s box could be a problem.

“We call this eccentric loading,” Dr. Stein said. “That’s when the muscle lengthens while it contracts.”

Ideally, the Yankees would like to limit Judge to DH duties and let Spencer Jones handle right field. They would also prefer that the judge exercise caution when leaving the batter’s box. He currently runs, but only on a weightless treadmill. This is a machine that uses air pressure to reduce effective body weight by up to 80%, reducing the impact on joints.

In other words, Judge still has a ways to go, and that’s not even about his actual batting skills and timing; both are rusty. He spent 100 days on the injured list with a fractured rib this summer, then injured his calf on September 16.

Remember, Judge was hardly himself in his seven-game return: .174 (4-for-23) with one homer, three RBIs and 13 strikeouts. But that’s the price Judge paid for skipping a minor league rehab assignment.

The rushed return may also have contributed to Judge’s second injury. Even though the rib and calf are not part of the same kinetic chain, the extended downtime theoretically could have harmed Judge’s entire body.

“This is the kind of thing you see early in the season,” Dr. Stein said. “You take so much time off (during the winter), then you come back and all of a sudden you have a lower extremity injury.”

If this is what happened to Judge, any responsible doctor would tell him not to rush his recovery a second time. But Judge worries about the schedule. The season could end in a month – or less.

Luckily, Judge has PPP on board.

Or as Tony Montana said in “Scarface”: Say hello to my boyfriend.