Aaron Judge is going back on the injured list for the second time this season, the Yankees confirmed this week, with the reigning face of the franchise sidelined as New York tries to hold position for the postseason. This is a team that already spent its summer patching a rotation and shuffling a bullpen. Losing the man carrying a $360 million contract, the largest ever handed to a position player when he signed it in 2022, is not a wrinkle. It is the injury report deciding the plot.

Here is the number that actually explains the panic in the Bronx: Judge signed that deal specifically to stay a Yankee for life, turning down bigger offers because the pinstripes were the point. A front office does not budget nine years and $40 million a season around a player it expects to half-watch from the injured list in September. The Yankees built a roster, a marketing calendar, and a luxury-tax bill around one irreplaceable bat. Now they get to find out, with the games that count approaching, exactly how much of that roster was built to survive without him.