Aaron Judge pushes back on Yankees manager’s throwing comments

TAMPA – A few hours after Aaron Boone said the quiet part out loud – that Aaron Judge may not get “back to throwing like he normally does” the rest of the season as he deals with a flexor strain – the Yankees manager backtracked from that a bit.

“Maybe that’s a little [overstated],” Boone said.

But Judge did not seem thrilled about the initial prediction.

“I don’t know why he said that,” the captain said after throwing in the outfield at Steinbrenner Field. “He hasn’t seen me throw the past two weeks. I’m pretty confident I’ll get back to that [100 percent].”

Boone had made the first comment during an appearance on WFAN Tuesday morning, but during his pregame session with reporters later in the day, he tried to clarify what he meant.

“I’m just saying, is he going to come back and be a 70-80 arm [80 being elite on the 20-80 scouting scale] that he normally is?” Boone said. “I don’t know that I’m expecting that necessarily. When we get him back out there, I would expect him to be able to handle himself out there.”

Neither Judge nor Boone was willing to offer a guess at when the reigning AL MVP might be able to play the field again, though Judge said he was “feeling good” throwing out to 150 feet.

The next and likely last step in his progression would be throwing to bases, but Judge was not sure when that would happen either.

“That’s up to the training staff and what we want to do,” Judge said. “But getting out to 150 [feet] feeling good, so hoping to be back out there soon and give [Giancarlo Stanton] a break from playing the field and mixing in DH and outfield.”