​The Yankees’ decision to not put Aaron Judge on the ALDS roster did not come lightly.Manager Aaron Boone told the media Saturday, ahead of Game 1 against the Rays, that he met with the team captain after Judge’s workout on Friday to talk it through. After what the Yankees skipper called a “good conversation,” he mulled over the decision for an hour or so before making the final call.”He’s made really good progress here over the last couple of weeks. Has worked incredibly hard to be an option and wanted to be on the roster,” Boone said of Judge. “Ultimately, I decided keeping him off was the best thing. Again, I feel like he’s getting close. But I feel like for us to get a version of Aaron back, and to win a World Series, this week’s important for him to continue to work towards getting back. Boone said Judge just started running and took at-bats for a few days already, but the team believes the reigning AL MVP could use more time to build up the endurance before he becomes a legit option for the ALCS and beyond.The endurance part of the progression was hit on a few times by Boone. The manager admits that the superstar could likely get through a game, but it’s unclear how Judge would bounce back for the next game or the one after. That’s especially the case if they want to use him in right field, since Judge himself said it would be better for the team if he could play the field instead of clogging up the DH spot.That all went into the calculation for Boone and the Yankees when making the decision. They even considered just carrying Judge to take an at-bat off the bench, like how they handled Giancarlo Stanton in the Wild Card Series. But ultimately, making sure Judge was as healthy as possible was the way they went.”I think he’s ready to take an at-bat. But in the end, I felt like the best chance to get a good version of Aaron is to get a good 5, 6, 7 days of building up his running,” Boone said. “Building up his endurance, taking BP every day. Those kind of things. Yeah, we considered it all.” Of course, Boone knows the team is not guaranteed to make it past the AL East champion Rays — who won the season series — but this decision “was the right thing to do” to get the Judge that can help this team win a World Series back.And despite being without Judge, Boone remains confident the team is good enough to beat anyone when they are playing well, like how they handled the Red Sox in their two-game sweep earlier this week, but if they don’t “We know if we play well, we can beat anyone,” Boone said. “We understand how good the Rays are. We’re playing this game here tonight [in Tampa] is because they’ve been the best team in the American League. We have to play well, but we also have a lot of confidence that if we play well, we can win and beat anyone. Hopefully, we can go out there and prove that.”
Why Ryan Weathers was added to rosterAside from Judge being left off the ALDS roster, the Yankees replaced Amed Rosario with LHP Ryan We