Yankees’ Aaron Judge insists he’s healthy enough for outfield

Aaron Judge was back in right field Friday night for the first time since he suffered a flexor strain in his right elbow July 25.

The Yankees hope to have Judge there regularly as they enter the stretch run, but even they aren’t sure how it’s going to go.

And Friday’s appearance got off to a shaky start, with Judge making a soft, short throw to Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the relay to second base on a two-run single by Nathan Lukes in the first inning and then Judge and Chisholm allowed Bo Bichette’s pop-up to shallow right to drop between them in a 7-1 loss in The Bronx.

Afterward, he insisted he was healthy enough to throw like he normally does.

“I wouldn’t be out there if I didn’t,’’ Judge said.

Asked about the play in the first inning — a play on which Judge would seemingly attempt to throw home when healthy — Judge said he thought about making a diving play on the ball, which impacted how he approached the throw.

“The ball dropped in there and I threw it to the cutoff man,’’ Judge said of Chisholm.

Judge made a slightly longer — and stronger — throw on Daulton Varsho’s RBI double in the ninth.

Aaron Boone said, “He’s in there. He’s good enough to be in there and hopefully continues to improve.”

Boone was asked before the game if he would “hold his breath” the first few times Judge had to unleash it.

“Sure, at first,’’ Boone said. “He’s worked really hard to get to this point. Obviously, we’ll pay very close attention to it [and] pay attention to his recovery.”

And Boone added Judge won’t play the outfield all the time and was unsure if he would be in right Saturday.

“I don’t plan on going every day with him initially,’’ the manager said. “But hopefully he continues to build up and gets to that point.”

Judge said he intends to be in the field “as much as I can, every day.”

But it’s more realistic to think there will be more Giancarlo Stanton in the outfield, a plan that has gone as well as the Yankees could have hoped since his return to playing defense nearly a month ago.

With Judge in right Friday, Stanton served as the DH after three straight games in left field in Houston.

“[Stanton] putting himself in the mix is, obviously, a big deal,’’ Boone said. “It’s probably some kind of shared situation. We’ll see how Aaron responds from being in these games.”

As to whether Judge would have any restrictions on him defensively, Boone said, “We’ll see.”

Luis Rojas, who works with the outfielders and has been part of Judge’s rehab process, noted Judge never throws hard in his practice sessions, but that the Yankees were confident he knows his body and what he’s able to do.

Still, Rojas added, “He’s a veteran player and knows himself pretty well. We always trust him. I don’t know if we’re gonna have a 100-mph throw like we’ve seen in the past. But a guy like him, you trust him and he went through his progressions.”

That included Judge making five throws from right field to home plate — three to a cutoff man plus a pair of two-hoppers to the catcher — before Thursday’s game in Houston.

Austin Slater, who returned from a strained left hamstring Friday, suffered a similar elbow flexor strain in mid-August 2020 and was limited to DH duties for the remainder of the season with the Giants.

“Every guy is different,” Slater said Friday of his 2020 injury, which prevented him from playing the field until spring training of the following season. “That’s why there are broad timelines with that [injury]. You don’t know how you’re gonna respond to it and there are different issues that can affect how quickly you come back.”

Slater had his best season at the plate that year, so he said it didn’t impact him offensively.

Judge’s numbers have slipped since he returned from the injured list Aug. 5.

He had an OPS of 1.160 prior to the injury and entered Friday with an .888 OPS after coming back.