Aaron Judge Injury Update, Latest on Yankees Star's Timeline for Return Ahead of MLB Playoffs

New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge will face live pitching on Monday at Yankee Stadium as part of his injury rehabilitation from a fractured right rib, manager Aaron Boone told reporters Saturday.

Judge has missed the past three months due to the injury.

Judge took batting practice swings on Friday, telling reporters he was "checking another box" in his return to the diamond.

"I'm mad how long it has taken," he added of his recovery. "It is what it is. I wish it was real two months ago, but we're at this point [now]. We're getting close. I can't wait to be back out there."

Judge has said he hopes to skip a minor league assignment, however.

"I don't see a point," he told reporters. "Why waste at-bats?"

He also ran the bases and did some fielding work on Friday.

"We're hitting all the baseball stuff," Judge said. "Throwing to bases, throwing, running the bases. Hitting, getting on the field, moving around. I think [we need to] face some live pitching and then I'll get back out there. ... We're trying to get the volume up so that we can be in a good spot. Because not doing nothing for three months, man, it feels like an offseason and you're kind of going back into Spring Training."

The 34-year-old was having a typically productive year before the injury, hitting .248 with 17 homers, 38 RBI, 43 runs and a .907 OPS across 59 games. Given that he finished the previous four seasons with an OPS above 1.000, you could argue he was having a slight down year, but almost every player in baseball would take Judge's version of a down year.

As for the Yankees, the team has gone 44-38 since Judge's injury, leaving them four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East but comfortably in an AL Wild Card berth.

Getting Judge back would obviously bolster the team's World Series hopes in a massive way. The timeline for that remains unclear, though Judge is inching clearly inching closer to his much-anticipated return.