NEW YORK — Once the season ends, the truth usually comes out. However, there are still no answers for the offseason ahead of ailing Yankees‘Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe.

Judge and Volpe were both playing through injury for a good portion of this season. The Yankees captain injured his right elbow after making a throw against the Blue Jays in late July and was placed on the 10-day IL on July 27.

However, the 33-year-old returned on Aug. 5 as the DH and eventually returned to the outfield in September with a noticeably weaker arm, indicating that something indeed was still not right. Judge had no answers on whether his elbow would require offseason surgery after their season ended at the hands of the Blue Jays on Wednesday night in Game 4 of the ALDS.

“We’ll definitely do some work on it. We’ll do some work on it and get it right,” said Judge. When asked if that meant surgery, he replied: “I’m not a doctor, I don’t know.”

Volpe repeated somewhat of the same sentiment on his partially torn labrum in his left shoulder, saying: “I don’t know [if I’ll need surgery]. I anticipated playing another month and then reassessing then. So nothing’s, we’re gonna figure it out.”

It was a brutal season for the Yankees’ shortstop as he slashed .212/.272/.391 in 153 games this season before a putrid ALDS, striking out 11 out of 15 at-bats.

The Yankees will likely point to the 24-year-old battling through injury as his dive for a ball in the third base hole on May 3 — when he felt a pop — resulted in an injured shoulder, as Brian Cashman did on Sept. 12. On May 3, the shortstop owned a .768 OPS which would have been a career high by over 100 points.

“Clearly it’s something he’s been bothered by,” Cashman said. “Earlier in the year, it came up, they did the imaging, hit him up with a [cortisone] shot, and it had immediate benefit. So we thought was behind him, but he’s a hard-nosed player. He’s diving all over the place at all times. It’s like a wide receiver going for a pass and falling on his shoulder.”

Volpe received multiple cortisone injections to help with the pain, however, he was mum on if his injured shoulder affected his play this season.

“I don’t know,” said Volpe. “I had a really good relationship with the training staff, and they trusted me. I trusted them. We grinded the whole way. I mean, until today. So I mean, I could’ve done a lot better.”

Ultimately, the Yankees will have some decisions to make. When Judge’s injury was announced, many feared that he would need Tommy John surgery to fix it, however, imaging revealed no structural damage to his UCL. And as for Volpe, uncomfortable conversations will likely occur about the state of the shortstop position for the Yankees entering 2026.

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