Possible Timeline of Yankees Returning from Injury

By EJ Fagan

August 2026

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The following post comes from EJ Fagan's Substack, Baseball Is Life. It is shared with permission.

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Clark Schmidt, Cody Bellinger, Carlos Rodon, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge are all on their way back to the big league roster. We have recent updates on all of them, so we can make some reasonable guesses about their return to play date. Let’s walk through the timeline and implications.

Just a fun note: if all five return and no one else hits the injured list, which probably isn’t going to happen but isn’t crazy, the Yankees will have zero players on the injured list. No one will be on the 60-day IL. I can’t remember the last time that has happened (which is why it probably won’t happen).

August 14th: Carlos Rodon Returns

Rodon will make a rehab start and throw around 50 pitches on Saturday. At that point, the only question will be if the Yankees start him in the major leagues on a pitch count or wait for one more rehab start. They opted to push Fried to the majors right away, so let’s assume that they do the same for Rodon.

Rodon’s schedule lines up with Gerrit Cole at the moment, followed by Cam Schlittler. They usually don’t let to mess with a rehabbing starter’s schedule, so maybe the Yankees will just push everyone’s start back a day.

The real question will be what the Yankees do with the five-man rotation if everyone is finally healthy at the same time. Will Warren will probably head to the bullpen, although I’ve seen speculation that Ryan Weathers would make a better relief pitcher. Ideally both are in the bullpen for the playoffs, but you have to get there first. I don’t think that they can afford to go for a six man rotation given how exhausted the bullpen is.

Someone has to go down. The Yankees have two slots on the current roster for Triple-A shuttle types currently occupied by Castro and De Los Santos. They could also dip Warren or Weathers down for a few weeks to make room.

August 18th: Giancarlo Stanton Returns

Stanton took live BP during the Cardinals series. A quick scan (via Claude) of previous Stanton injuries suggests that live BP comes about 10-14 days from returning. Two weeks is the 15th.

But how will they fit him into the lineup? If he returns on the 15th, the Yankees will be facing the all-righty Blue Jays. The Orioles are next with two left-handed starters lined up. I think the Yankees wait to activate Stanton until the Orioles series.

Unless he picks it up quickly, Amed Rosario probably gets DFAed. The platoon righty bat hasn’t hit lefties all year and can’t play defense. The Yankees can make due with Cabarello backing up the infield and Garcia as an emergency option. But also look out for Goldschmidt if his slump continues.

August 21st: Cody Bellinger Returns

Bellinger pulled his hamstring on July 25th. We got an initial timeline of 4-6 weeks to return to play. But we also got some pretty quick news that Bellinger was recovering quickly. Fast forward to today and he’s taking batting practice, although also saying that he still feels it in his hamstring a little bit.

My guess is that the Yankees will be a little bit cautious, even if Bellinger is feeling okay. Four weeks from the injury is August 22nd, so let’s assume that he comes back at the beginning of the Blue Jays series on August 21st.

Who does Bellinger displace? The easy answer is Spencer Jones. The big guy had a strong week+ after Bellinger went down, but has struggled more recently. I don’t have a lot of faith in the guy leading the majors in strikeout rate, but has has managed to bring it down a bit since returning. There’s a world where gets hot and defends his spot.

In that case, I wonder if Trent Grisham is vulnerable. He’s been awful on both sides of the ball recently. He’s too slow for center field and too bad to hit leadoff. On the other hand, his .222 BABIP isn’t going to stay down forever, which is why his xwOBA is .338. Bellinger is probably going to have to play center against lefty starters.

September 1st: Aaron Judge Returns

Here’s the big one. Judge has been cleared to exercise. Based on Joel Sherman’s reporting last week, that means that Judge is symptom free. The rib injury is one where you can do more harm by playing through the pain, so Judge isn’t going to return to post a .900 OPS at half strength. He has recovered.

But he hasn’t recovered his fitness. Judge has been basically banned from working out for more than two months. Maybe he’s done some lower body workouts, but even running was off limits. Aaron Boone said that “in theory” Judge needs a full Spring Training to get back into shape. But hitters are usually able to get into shape faster than pitchers, at least to hit.

The Yankees have a West Coast road trip beginning on August 31st. I’m betting that Judge returns when rosters expand on September 1st when rosters expand. He might be limited to DH duty at first. It can’t come soon enough.

If they want to push it, the Yankees are playing a double header against the Red Sox on August 29th. The Yankees could add Judge as the 27th man and not send anyone else down immediately.

September 7th: Clark Schmidt Returns

The Yankees received a bit of a scare when they cut Schmidt’s live batting practice session short due to cramping, but he was cleared to continue his rehab today. That said, I don’t think that Schmidt’s return is super close.

Even as a relief pitcher, Schmidt will need some real time. Gerrit Cole made six rehab starts over a month when returning from Tommy John. Schmidt’s injury was slightly less severe and will probably be built up as a relief pitcher, but the Yankees won’t want to rush him. So I’m going with September 7th.