After Thursday’s game was postponed to do further contact tracing and COVID-19 testing, Aaron Judge, Gio Urshela, and Kyle Higashioka all tested positive, according to multiple reports.
Those three players will join Jonathan Loaisiga, Nestor Cortes, and Wandy Peralta on the COVID-19 injured list — the latter two were placed on the list on Thursday, while Loaisiga was put on the list on Saturday.
MLB announced Friday afternoon that Friday night’s Yankees-Red Sox game would proceed as scheduled, while Thursday’s postponement will be made up on Aug. 17 as part of a doubleheader.
Judge was at the All-Star Game on Tuesday in Denver, which led Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora to be “worried” about his players at the game, some of which are unvaccinated.
Urshela is fully vaccinated, but it is unknown if Judge and Higashioka are, although Brian Cashman said “most” of the six are fully vaccinated.
Judge and Urshela have been two of the most productive and consistent Yankees this year – Judge leads the team in homers, RBI, average, OBP, and SLG, and he started Tuesday’s Midsummer Classic.
Urshela’s .275 average is the second-best on the team, while Higashioka – although struggling offensively as of late – is the far superior defensive catcher to Gary Sanchez and is Gerrit Cole‘s personal catcher.
On Thursday, Cashman all six players were doing “okay.”