Stanton In, Judge Out: Craig and Big Mac Talk Yankees vs. Red Sox

Craig Carton (0:00)

Live from Yankee Stadium, as we get ready for the 2026 postseason, wild card action, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox. I wouldn't have it any other way. On a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous Tuesday afternoon in New York City, phone number to join as always, 888-808-1019.

Good afternoon, Big Mac, how are you today, kid? I love it here.

Chris McMonigle (0:25)

I hope I die here.

Craig Carton (0:26)

That's right.

Chris McMonigle (0:27)

I'm feeling good, Craig.

Craig Carton (0:28)

As you should be.

Chris McMonigle (0:29)

I'm feeling good.

Craig Carton (0:31)

Everybody's nicely fed here, as Nico and the executive chef here at Yankee Stadium took care of business. My main man, getting it done, Robert Flowers, the head chef here at Yankee Stadium. So we're well-fed, we're well-drunk, and now we got ourselves a Yankee baseball. I have breaking news about an hour and a half, two hours ago.

Aaron Judge not on the wild card roster, but Giancarlo Stanton is on the wild card roster. And that means to me, if Stanton plays, the Yankee game did not go the way the Yankees wanted it to go early.

Chris McMonigle (1:08)

I don't know about that necessarily. But yeah, I mean, if he's coming up, it means they see an opportunity to score runs late in the game. So could you see using him? He's definitely not playing. First off, let's start with the judge stuff. Because I think that's the bigger story. I don't think there was ever a world, despite everything he said, despite the back and forth, not telling us what the injury was, being unhappy with the terminologies that the Yankees and Aaron Boone used. It was never ever going to happen that he coming off a calf strain 11 days later was going to make this roster. But it seems like he's the only one that didn't know that. He's the only one who didn't know it because he just, he had to fight till the bitter end to try and change the Yankees' mind. But the Yankees did, unfortunately, as much as we would all love to see Aaron Judge play, the Yankees made the only decision they could, right? They made a roster that has 16 position players and seven guys off the bench, and still Aaron Judge isn't one of them, and it's the right decision. He's got, they can win the series without him. He has, as of yesterday, he didn't run the bases. It just was never a practical situation to expect Aaron Judge on this roster and obviously in the lineup. So he's going to have to wait, and that should be the mantra of the team, right? Get the captain of the series, get through to this series, get to the series against Tampa Bay and the DS, and give Aaron Judge a chance to impact this team and go chase the championship. So they got these three games without him. I think it's the only thing they could do. It's had to be a tough conversation, and we'll get to maybe what happens to me.

Craig Carton (2:33)

Yeah, because here's the reality. If he forces his way into the lineup and they use them, and again, he has not run at all. He can't run the bases right now. We all saw him taking swings. Yeah, he looks like Aaron Judge. But if you can't run, and then the problem comes with the calf muscle injury, as we've learned from other sports and other athletes, then the question is, let's say he hits a ball into the gap, and he's got to get his ass to second base, right?

All of a sudden, if you pull it again there, or worse, the Achilles you're out for next year, if there is a next year. If you pull the calf muscle, now you can't come back, most likely, for any other series. So, if the thought process is, we should be good enough with our starting pitching staff, and obviously the back end of our bullpen, to beat the Boston Red Sox, then there's a better likelihood that Aaron Judge is capable of coming back, even if not for game one, at some part of the ALDS.

Chris McMonigle (3:26)

100%. And he's on that roster. And if he's worked himself this close to actually getting back where he's entertaining it and said his disease feels good, then maybe he is close enough to get to the ALDS. But the wild card never made sense, and to push him, and to exacerbate it or make it worse, you're talking about the devastating injury of an Achilles, it makes no sense because they might have Aaron Judge win two of the next three games and you might have Aaron Judge to go chase a championship. It never made sense to do it now.