Aaron Judge said Thursday he plans on throwing and taking swings by Sunday.
“I’m hoping by the end of this homestand to be doing something,’’ Judge said after the Yankees lost to Seattle, 10-2. “We’ll see.”
It’s part of Judge’s slow road back to the field from a sprained big toe suffered when he slammed into the outfield fence making a catch against the Dodgers in Los Angeles on June 3.
Judge said he doesn’t have a target date for a potential return. When asked if he expected to play in the All-Star Game or be back by then, the leading AL outfield vote-getter said he hadn’t thought about it.
“It’s still a couple weeks away, so I’m not there yet,’’ Judge said. “Each day I keep improving.”
That’s been the case, he said, since he received a second PRP injection on the toe last week.
“They hit the right spot,’’ Judge said.
“We got some better imaging and figured out what was actually torn and did what we needed to do.”
Judge won’t be ready to get back on the field until “I’m healed up, ready to go and can hit and run without any issues in [the toe]. I can’t predict when that’s gonna happen.”
Before the game, Aaron Boone said he believed Judge had “turned the corner’’ with the injury.
Willie Calhoun was placed on the IL with a strained quad after suffering the injury Wednesday. He missed nearly a month with a similar injury in 2019.
Calhoun was replaced on the roster by Oswaldo Cabrera, called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Cabrera, a late-game replacement for Giancarlo Stanton, went 0-for-1 on Thursday night. He has mostly struggled with the Yankees this season and entered the game with an OPS of just .535.
Boone said the recent spate of controversial calls on plays at home plate are not “a great look for the sport.”
The son of longtime major league catcher Bob Boone was primarily talking about the play in a game between the Rangers and White Sox on Tuesday in which the review process ruled that Texas catcher Jonah Heim blocked home plate as the White Sox’s Elvis Andrus tried to score.
The White Sox were given the run, even though it appeared Heim left Andrus a path to the plate.
“Certainly, the last couple days doesn’t feel like such a great look for the sport,’’ Boone said of that play and one involving ex-Yankee Gary Sanchez, now in San Diego, who was called for blocking the plate on Wednesday.
“The Texas one feels like, ‘Come on now,’ ” Boone said.
Those plays, as well as other questionable rulings, have caused the Yankees to review some of their catching protocols, although Boone said both Jose Trevino and Kyle Higashioka were well-versed in the rule.
“[They’re] very aware of what they can do,’’ Boone said. “But there’s some gray in there that’s probably not the best.”
Isiah Kiner-Falefa pitched a scoreless ninth inning and then homered in the bottom of the inning to become the first Yankee to hit a homer as a pitcher since Lindy McDaniel on Sept. 28, 1972 in Detroit.
Right-hander Ian Hamilton (groin strain) is expected to pitch one more rehab game in the minors before potentially rejoining the bullpen in time for the road trip that begins Tuesday in Oakland.