Aaron Boone suggests Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton could return before Aaron Judge

The Yankees’ late-season calendar now has a clearer, if still uncertain, shape. In comments reported by Yahoo Sports on Aug. 11, Yankees manager Aaron Boone addressed a question about when key hitters could return, and he suggested the most likely sequence would have Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton returning before Aaron Judge. The tone from Boone was framed as expectation rather than certainty, with his answer beginning from the team’s current view of what is “probably” reasonable to expect.

That matters because the Yankees’ identity over the last several months has been tied to their three marquee sluggers. Aaron Judge, Bellinger, and Stanton have been treated internally as the core of the lineup’s power-and-presence profile, the kind of configuration that can change late-game leverage in the American League. Even without detailing any roster specifics, Boone’s remarks highlight that the club’s plan is centered on restoring that three-man impact as the season winds toward its end.

Boone was asked directly about the order of expected returns. According to the Yahoo Sports report, he discussed Bellinger and Stanton and placed them ahead of Judge in what he views as the likeliest timing picture. In other words, rather than imagining a simultaneous return of all three hitters, Boone’s response points to a staggered path back, which has practical implications for roster roles and how managers decide at-bats while waiting for the final piece.

From a team-building standpoint, that staggered approach is common when multiple players are working their way back from time away. Teams usually try to avoid rushing a full return simultaneously, because each player’s readiness can vary. Boone’s comments, as presented in the report, underscore that the Yankees are thinking in terms of readiness windows and how those windows translate to lineup construction, not just a single target date.

The Yankees’ immediate challenge in the background is continuity. When a lineup is missing one of its top sluggers, the burden tends to shift to the remaining hitters to cover more innings of performance, and the batting order often has to be adjusted to balance protection, spacing, and run production. A return of Bellinger and Stanton would tighten that middle-to-late lineup protection picture, which can reduce how often pitchers get to intentionally pitch around a single threat.

Meanwhile, Judge’s timeline appears to be the last in Boone’s suggested sequence, leaving the Yankees to bridge from the current roster configuration toward a finished, power-heavy form. For now, Boone’s “probably” language suggests the organization is aiming to be practical rather than optimistic, emphasizing what the club sees as realistic rather than promising a definitive end date.

What to watch next is whether Boone’s described ordering holds up as the Yankees move deeper into the final stretch. If Bellinger and Stanton do return on the earlier end of the expectation, the Yankees will likely be able to stabilize production patterns sooner, then shift their focus to maximizing at-bats and timing for Judge when he becomes available. If the timelines change, Boone’s comments will stand as a snapshot of where the team’s thinking was on Aug. 11, before the next set of day-to-day readiness updates arrives.