Aaron Judge - Toe to require 'constant maintenance' rest of career - ESPN

TAMPA, Fla. — Aaron Judge's big toe is more than a footnote for the New York Yankees.

Judge missed 42 games after tearing a ligament in his right big toe when he crashed into the right-field fence at Dodger Stadium last June 3, a big reason the Yankees fell from postseason contention.

«It's going to be I think a constant maintenance I think the rest of my career,» Judge said Tuesday. «Anything with injuries like that, you just got to stay on top of it so it doesn't flare up again.»

The affable 6-foot-7, 282-pound slugger returned July 28 and wound up hitting .262 with 37 homers and 75 RBIs in 106 games.

«I keep getting hurt in right field, so I think that's why they moved me to center field,» he said, drawing laughs at a news conference.

«I think it's about playing smarter,» he went on, «understanding the field, understanding the dimensions. In that case, I thought I had one extra step and I didn't in that situation, so that always goes back on me. I got to be a little smarter there. So, yeah, just like this year, I've got play smart. But, no, I don't think they'll be any cement bottoms of walls in center field.»

Judge hit 62 homers in 2022, breaking Roger Maris' American League record of 61 in 1961. The Yankees batted a major league-low .202 during his absence last summer and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

«A lot of guys were embarrassed,» Judge said. «Kind of a wake-up call, and I think just collectively as a group we all kind of looked at each other and said this can't happen again.»

In Judge's first season as Yankees captain, the 82-80 record was New York's worst since 1992 and its World Series title drought reached 14 years — the Yankees' longest since the gap from 1978 to 1996.

«It still eats at