Four years ago, there was no doubt Aaron Judge would be a career Yankee. Three years ago? Same thing. Two years ago? Somewhat the same thing. One year ago? Eh, possibly. Now? I don’t see how he could be.

There’s no question Judge is an elite talent, a true difference maker in the Yankees’ lineup and the most important player to the team’s offense. Judge turned 29 on Monday and he celebrated his birthday with a Yankees loss to Matt Harvey and the Orioles as the team fell four games under .500 again. Judge treated himself to an eighth-inning, rally-ending out when he inexplicably decided to run to third base and get into better scoring position with two outs, representing the game-tying run.

Judge has spent a lot of his 20s injured. He will be a free agent after his 30-year-old season and will turn 31 in the first month of whatever contract he gets following 2022. It’s hard to envision someone with his size and stature and injury history getting healthier as their career progresses. I don’t see how Judge will be less injury-prone on the other side of 30.

This week pushed me over the edge on Judge. It was bad enough he was missing time six games into the season, but this week was the breaking point with him and his unavailabilty.

Judge was pulled in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s game, and immediately, every Yankees fan assumed he was injured. When Judge was pulled from the fourth game of the season, it resulted in him missing the sixth and seventh games of the season. When he was pulled early from a game last season, it resulted in him missing more than half of the shortened season. Each time this happens, Aaron Boone says the same thing, and Tuesday was no different. 

“Yeah, he’s been pretty sore the last couple of days and I’ve been wanting to get him a day here,” Boone said. “So just wanted to get him off his feet there at the end there, probably, get him one of these next two days a full day.”

That scary Boone phrase of “just wanted to get him off his feet” has never boded well for Judge. It’s never about giving him a rest. There’s always something more. Maybe Boone is foolish is enough to think that answer would suffice the New York media and his postgame press conference would continue without a follow-up as to how and why Judge is sore.

“I think it’s more just lower body stuff from kind of the travel,” Boone said. “Eight days in a row, obviously, he’s been on the bases a lot, running around a lot.”

That was it. That was the moment I realized giving Judge a contract of anything more than three years after 2022 would be idiotic and regrettable. Even three years would likely be too long.

Traveling. TRAVELING. TRAVELINGGGGGG! Judge didn’t get hit by a pitch or slide awkwardly into a base or fall funny on a dive or crash into a wall to experience soreness. He’s sore from traveling in luxury as part of the most prestigious franchise of the major sports.

When Aaron Hicks missed nearly the first two months of the 2019 season after suffering a back injury during a 35-minute bus ride in spring training, I thought an injury that absurd was as safe as Cal Ripken’s consecutive-game streak in terms of being untouchable. But then Judge went and one-upped his teammate and fellow outfielder. The only way Judge can be topped is if a Yankee is unable to play from being too sore from sitting on the bench in the dugout. 

Half of Judge’s job is spent traveling since half of the Yankees’ schedule is played away from Yankee Stadium. The Yankees fly on chartered planes, stay in five-star hotels and Judge makes more than enough money ($10.175 million in 2021) to enjoy the highest-quality meals. It’s not like the Yankees are flying coach on Spirit Airlines, staying at Days Inns and eating fast food on the road.

What exactly is sore for Judge?

“It is non-specific right now,” Boone said.

Those nagging non-specific, travel-related soreness injuries are the worst.

“I expect Judge to be in there tomorrow,” Boone said after Thursday’s loss. “I expect him to play regularly and to play all three games into the off day.”

Holy shit! Three games in a row! I’m not even being sarcastic. Since 2017, Judge has played in 263 of the Yankees’ last 409 regular-season games. That’s 64 percent. He’s averaged missing one game of every three-game series for the last four seasons. (In 2016, when he was called up for the first time, he ended up being shut down for the season with an oblique injury.) So playing in three games in a row is a big deal. That exceeds his average over the last four seasons.

In all seriousness, let’s not get crazy here, Boone. Before Boone starts filling out the lineup card for Friday, I hope he looked at the travel itinerary for the team from Baltimore back to New York because Judge either suffered his soreness traveling from New York to Cleveland (67-minute flight) or from Cleveland to Baltimore (54-minute flight) and we don’t want that to happen again. There are important questions Boone needed to have answered before declaring Judge a starter all weekend.

Are the Yankees flying home from Baltimore (37 minutes) or taking the train (2 hours and 40 minutes)?

Whether it’s plane or train, will Judge’s pillows be fluffed properly so he doesn’t get a stiff neck?

Will a body pillow be available for him to avoid any further “lower-body stuff?”

Will his ride home from the airport or Stadium have the heat or air conditioning in the vehicle set to the exact temperature necessary to avoid further discomfort?

Here’s to hoping the postgame spread in the clubhouse was to Judge’s liking on Thursday afternoon and that his steak dinner was cooked to his liking and that he made it home from Baltimore in complete comfort.

Boone was asked what he has to say to the fans who question the health of Judge.

“I’d say we’re at the end of April here,” Boone said. “(Judge) has played a lot here already in the month of April.”

Boone, Boone, Boone. To take a line from Michael Scott, “Why are you the way that you are?”

You know what I’d say? I’d say you’re at the end of April and you have an 11-14 record. I’d say you’re tied for the last in the AL East, already five games back in the division, 1-5 against the Rays, 2-4 against the Blue Jays and just lost two games to the Orioles.

Judge hasn’t played “a lot” in April. This has been his schedule:

April 1: Played complete game
April 2: Off
April 3: Played complete game
April 4: Played complete game
April 5: Played eight innings
April 6: Played complete game
April 7: Off
April 8: Off
April 9: Off
April 10: Played complete game
April 11: Played complete game
April 12: Played complete game
April 13: Played complete game
April 14: Played complete game
April 15: Off
April 16: Played complete game
April 17: Played complete game
April 18: Played complete game
April 19: Off
April 20: Played complete game
April 21: Played complete game
April 22: Played complete game
April 23: Played complete game
April 24: Played complete game
April 25: Played complete game
April 26: Played complete game
April 27: Pulled in ninth inning
April 28: Off
April 29: Pinch hit in eighth inning

“He’s as tough as they come,” Boone said, “And does always want to play and be there.

Boone said that was a straight face. He didn’t even crack the slightest smile or blink. For a second I believed him. Then I remembered this:

In 29 days, Judge has played 19 complete games, been pulled early in two, pinch hit in one and had seven days off. In four weeks, Judge has had a week off. He has spent a quarter of the baseball season not playing baseball. This after having the previous six months off. And prior to that, he played 35 baseball games (2020 regular season and postseason) in a calendar year. Since the last out of the 2019 ALCS, Judge has played in 57 games in 18 months.

“I think he also understands more than ever that this about posting over the long haul,” Boone said on Wednesday. “This is about being able to go to the post whether it’s 140, 145 150 times. That’s what we’re eyeing.”

What Boone wanted to say was, “We want him to be healthy for October,” but not even Boone is dumb enough to say that when the team is three games under .500 and an overall disaster.

Judge has played 155 games once. His next highest is 112. So don’t act like 140 or 145 or 150 games is the norm or even a possibility when it comes to Judge. It’s not. He’s already missed four games. He would have to play in 129 of the remaining 137 games to play in 150 games this season. There’s a better chance Boone doesn’t say the word “obviously” in his next press conference than there is of Judge pulling that off.

A day later, Boone was asked if it’s fair to say Judge won’t play in the 140-150-game range, considering he’s already missed four games and simple math coupled with Judge’s injury history and Boone’s obsession with days off guarantees it.

“No, I think it’s silly to try to guess on it now,” Boone said, clearly upset with the question. “The proof will be in the pudding. When we get down to September, we can see where we’re at and we can revisit that. I expect him to be a regular for us throughout the year.”

Boone said all of that with a shit-eating grin on his face. If Boone thinks the pudding in September is going to show Judge on pace for 140-150 games played, there’s probably some hallucinogens baked into it.

“You can go ahead and speculate on what the number will be,” Boone said. “I think it’s a little silly to do that at the end of April.”

There’s no “speculating.” It’s simple math.

“Judgey always wants to play,” Boone said with a sarcastic laugh. “But I think just me kind of talking through with him and just saying I want to do one more day, my message to him was ‘I want you to be in there a ton throughout the season.’”

Judge doesn’t always want to play. If he did, Boone wouldn’t know about his soreness from traveling. If he did, he wouldn’t tell Boone about his soreness from traveling.

The Yankees are so concerned with Judge being available in September and October that they’re not worried about him playing and the team winning in April. At the team’s current rate of urgency, Judge will be healthy to play meaningless games in September and to watch the postseason in October. Then he can have another six months off his feet.

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The Yankees found a new low point, and this time, I don’t know that they will be able to go any lower. The Yankees were shut down by Matt Harvey at Camden Yards to lose for the eighth time in 12 games, falling to an embarrassing 9-13 on the season.

On Monday, I wrote the three wins over the Indians were nice, but the Yankees hadn’t resolved any of their issues. They only scored 16 runs in the four-game series, trailed early in three of the four, blew a three-run lead in the only game in which they scored first and continued their sloppy defensive play. Those issues which have been on display in New York, Tampa, Dunedin and Cleveland made their way to Baltimore as well.

New series, new city, new stadium, same team. The Yankees rolled over for Harvey like they have for every starting pitcher this season as they were one-hit for five innings and didn’t score until the sixth inning. They briefly provided excitement with a bases-loaded rally in the eighth thanks to three walks from the wild Tanner Scott, but Aaron Judge ran his team out of the inning. Judge inexplicably attempted to get into better scoring position with two outs in the eighth following a Gio Urshela base hit, and his decision cost the Yankees a run at the plate and cost them their rally on the basepaths.

After the game, the media only wanted to ask Boone about getting ejected from the game for not being allowed to challenge the call on the field of whether LeMahieu scored before Judge was tagged at third. Boone believes he must have been looking at bench coach Carlos Mendoza when the umpire looked into the dugout to see if he was going to challenge.

“I must have been looking at Mendy on the phone when he made that call because it seemed so early to me,” Boone said. “It was very quick. Usually, I have a good rhythm where I look with Mendy and I’m holding them off. Apparently, he said something and when I went to turn and challenge, it was too late.”

Trailing by 2 in the eighth inning, why wouldn’t Boone automatically challenge the call. When would he have another moment of that significance to challenge again in the game?

“Obviously,” Boone said, “I’m going to challenge that at that point in the game all day long.”

If Boone was “going to challenge that at that point in the game all day long” then why didn’t he?

The eighth-inning non-challenge and ejection became the postgame story when it should have never occurred if Judge didn’t try to unnecessarily take third. The real story was the Yankees’ lack of offense yet again.

“We had some chances,” Boone said, “Obviously.”

The Yankees have 13 losses this season and Boone has used nearly an identical line in all 13 of them about “having chances.” There’s always an excuse for why the Yankees lost. It’s never the starting pitcher’s fault or the offense’s fault, and it’s certainly never Boone’s fault.

Everyone keeps saying how the Yankees will hit. Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone, the players, David Cone. They have all said the Yankees will eventually break out. But it’s now been 26 days and 22 games of saying the same thing and nothing has changed. Seriously, nothing. Not a single player has shown a sign of turning their season around.

DJ LeMahieu, who once seemed slump-proof, picked up another 0-for-3; Giancarlo Stanton did what he does best, disappearing with the game on the line in the eighth; Judge picked up just his second extra-base hit in the last nine days and celebrated his 29th birthday by ending the Yankees’ eighth-inning rally; Rougned Odor inexplicably batted fourth again and rewarded his manager’s confidence in his career, which should be over, by going 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts; Gio Urshela had a nice game and continues to be the Yankees’ best hitter; Gleyber Torres is now 3-for-15 since everyone thought he was snapping out of it in the series opener in Cleveland; Aaron Hicks had another strong performance, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts to fall to .162; an 0-for-4 for Gary Sanchez who is down to .182, Clint Frazier failed to get a hit again, but did pick up two walks. That summary could be used to describe any of a number of games this season.

This was going to be it. This 11-game stretch was going to be the 11 games to erase the previous 11 games in which the Yankees went 3-8 against the Rays, Blue Jays and Braves. Eleven games against the Indians, Orioles and Tigers were going to save the Yankees’ season. They would have the chance to beat up on the Indians, who now have the second-lowest payroll in the league by essentially admitting they don’t care to be competitive, they could continue their dominance over the Orioles at  while miraculously missing John Means in a four-game series and finally they would get to see the Tigers, who boast the majors’ worst record and run differential. By the end of play on May 2 and after a month of bad baseball, the Yankees’ season would be in a disappointing, but acceptable place. I’m not so sure that’s going to happen anymore.

Something has to change with this team. Until it does, don’t expect different results from a team and a roster that has grown comfortable and accepting of losing.

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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!