Aaron Judge is expected to return this week!

Aaron Judge is coming back this week. Every signal is now pointing the same direction. He cleared his final medical checkpoint Monday, taking live batting practice at Yankee Stadium for the first time since fracturing his rib on May 31 — and it went cleanly. Judge himself dropped the guarded act in his Sunday interview, saying he wants to “get back out on the field as soon as possible,” a real tonal shift after three months of refusing to give reporters anything. Then came the tell: the Yankees optioned reliever Elmer Rodríguez to Triple-A Monday night, clearing a 26-man roster spot. Teams don’t open a spot like that speculatively — every other injured player (Grisham, Schmidt) is still weeks out, so there’s no one else that spot is for. The setup makes sense too: a soft six-game homestand against the last-place Rockies (Tue-Thu) before the Subway Series with the Mets (Fri-Sun) is the ideal spot to ease him back in, likely at 5-7 innings a game rather than full workloads. Whether it’s Tuesday’s opener or a day or two later, Judge is in that lineup before this homestand is over.