Yankees’ Aaron Judge Is Out for Opening Day With Rib Fracture

After months of pain, Judge said on Friday that he had a stress fracture that may take months to heal. TAMPA, Fla. — The good news: The source of the mysterious pain in Aaron Judge’s shoulder and chest has finally been identified. He has a stress fracture in his uppermost right rib.

The bad news: He has a stress fracture in his uppermost right rib that will keep him out of the Yankees lineup on opening day, and surgery hasn’t been ruled out yet. After nearly a dozen tests of several parts of Judge’s body, a CT scan this week finally pinpointed the culprit. But the diagnosis raised more questions about the Yankees’ handling of injuries, particularly because Judge’s dates to last season. In right field on Sept.

18, Judge made a diving attempt on a fly ball. He grimaced when he got up, and the team later said that Judge had jammed his shoulder. He kept playing through the American League Championship Series. But on Friday, Judge, 27, revealed that he had felt a “crack” and a “pop” on that play.

With adrenaline flowing and the postseason coming up, Judge said he did not think much of the injury. He passed a few tests (including a magnetic resonance imaging examination), received “a couple shots” in the troubled area and kept playing. “Most of the pain and problem was coming from the shoulder and neck and the surrounding area, so the pain was radiating in other places,” Judge said. “So you give them the symptoms and tell them what’s wrong, and they work off of what you say.

” As Judge began working out in November, he felt soreness in his shoulder area but brushed it off as a normal side effect of resting the previous month. As the winter progressed, he said, the pain got worse and he was confused by its source. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is something I can kind of warm up and work through and be fine by the time spring training starts,’” he said. “If I would’ve known it was a rib, I maybe would’ve done things a little bit differently.

” After arriving in Tampa early for spring training, Judge continued to feel something wrong with his shoulder. He underwent an M. R.