NEW YORK (AP) — Injured Yankees captain Aaron Judge was left off New York's roster for its AL Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox starting Tuesday night.
Giancarlo Stanton, out since April 24 because of strained calf muscles in both legs, was included. So was center fielder Trent Grisham.
Sidelined since Sept. 16 by a strained right calf, Judge took live batting practice on the field Monday, a day ahead of the series opener, in an effort to persuade manager Aaron Boone and the medical staff. He walked twice, hit a comebacker to the mound and took a called third strike against teammates Ryan Weathers and Elmer Rodríguez.
The three-time AL MVP had a platelet-poor plasma injection Sept. 21. The 34-year-old was sidelined by a fractured rib from May 31 to Sept. 8 and played in just seven games before the latest injury.
Judge was limited to 66 games this season. He hit .241 with 18 homers, 41 RBIs and an .871 OPS, including .174 with one homer and three RBIs in September.
Stanton started the season with a .256 batting average, three homers and 14 RBIs in 24 games. The 36-year-old, acquired after winning NL MVP in 2017, had 38 homers and 100 RBIs in his first season with New York but has missed 500 of 1,194 games since (41.9%).
Grisham had been sidelined since straining his right hamstring on Sept. 4. He was among New York’s 15 position players.
Left-hander Garrett Crochet, who won last season’s WCS opener against the Yankees by allowing one run and four hits in 7 2/3 innings, will be available in the bullpen. The two-time All-Star has not pitched since April 25 because of left shoulder inflammation.
“He’s worked very hard to get everything back strong the way it needs to be, but we’re still going to be evaluating him daily to see where he’s at,” manager Chad Tracy said.
Second baseman Luis Arraez, a three-time batting champion, is out for the series against Atlanta after spraining his left ankle last Thursday.
Left-hander Brooks Raley, like Arraez acquired ahead of the trade deadline, also was left off.
Right-hander Jonathan Bowlan and infielder Otto Kemp were included as the Phillies went with 14 position players.
Philadelphia did not include any players it acquired at the trade deadline.
Infielders Rowdy Tellez and Luke Williams were included on the roster by Atlanta, which has 15 position players.
Tommy Pham, a 38-year-old outfielder acquired from Philadelphia on Aug. 31, was among 14 position players picked by Chicago for its series at Houston in a rematch of the 2005 World Series — the Astros moved to the AL for the 2013 season.
Pham hit .429 for Arizona in the 2023 World Series against Texas.
Right-hander Ethan Pecko, 2-0 with a 3.94 ERA in eight starts from mid-August through the end of the regular season, is injured and was not among the Astros’ 12 pitchers. Steven Okert (hamstring) also was left off.
Houston included Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai, who struggled to a 6-4 record and 4.93 ERA in 15 starts and eight relief appearances after coming to Major League Baseball with a $54 million, three-year contract.
Infielder Reynal Delgado, who played in just three games for the Astros after July 19, was included along with outfielder Joey Loperfido, chosen over LaMonte Wade Jr.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge walks back to the dugout after the bottom of the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Iran’s currency fell to a new record low on Tuesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the U.S. dollar in a stark reflection of how the war in the Middle East has steadily eroded the Iranian economy.
The latest decline came just 27 days after the rial hit its previous record low of 2.2 million to the dollar on Sept. 2. The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began in February.
The Iranian economy has been under duress for years in the face of international sanctions. But a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian oil and new sanctions imposed since the start of the war have sent it into freefall.
Meanwhile, Iran’s top diplomat said indirect negotiations with the United States aimed at reopening the critical Strait of Hormuz have become “more serious,” while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ chief spokesman Gen. Hossein Mohebbi on Tuesday called on Americans to take to the streets and protest the conflict.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian media late on Monday that the “current focus is solely on the Strait of Hormuz,” the chokepoint of the war.
Araghchi made the comments shortly before departing New York — where he attended last week’s gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly — and after meeting with Pakistani and Qatari mediators.
Araghchi said that the Qatari intermediaries were expected to soon engage with the U.S. side.
“They are set to raise the matter with the American side once more, after which the final U.S. response will be conveyed to us,” Araghchi said. “If there is a response, the Qataris will convey it to us and a decision will be made in Tehran on that basis.”
Officials, including from the U.S., have confirmed to The Associated Press that mediators are working with Iran and the U.S. on trying to broker a deal to end the fighting and open the strait.
The mediation efforts continue even after U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week spurned an Iranian proposal to reopen the strait in seven days if the U.S. agreed to lift its blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian assets and waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on Tuesday made an appeal to everyday Americans to push their government to end the U.S. war against Iran, a provocative message that comes just weeks before critical midterm elections in the United States.
Mohebbi, the Guard spokesman, read a letter during a news conference in Iran's capital, Tehran, appealing to Americans to pressure their government and claiming that the only way for the war to end is for Washington to admit defeat and leave the Mideast.
Mohebbi’s remarks come as Trump’s Republican party faces fierce headwinds as it looks to maintain control of Congress. But polling shows the war has darkened the American electorate’s mood ahead of the Nov. 3 election in which elevated gasoline prices, a byproduct of the conflict, loom large.
Mohebbi also accused the U.S. of using Iran’s nuclear program as a ruse to “plunder Iran’s wealth” and to turn the country “back into a colony.”
He added that the U.S. and others failed in their belief that military and economic action would get Tehran to submit and that Washington “has no choice but to acknowledge defeat and leave the region.”
“This is how the war will end,” he said.
Trump and his top aides are insistent that Iran’s economy cannot sustain a conflict much longer and have expressed confidence that Tehran will be forced to capitulate.
The U.S. president predicted soon after launching the war that the conflict would last a matter of weeks. More recently, he’s said that the war will likely end after the November elections in the U.S.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Monday appearance on Fox News said Iran was heading toward an economic “cataclysm.” Administration officials say that a combination of new sanctions and a U.S. naval blockade aimed at preventing Iranian oil from going to market are having the intended effect.
“And so when you’re denying them money through oil sales and sanctions, you’re not just punishing them,” Rubio said. “You are preventing them from getting access to money that they will use to try and kill Americans and others around the world and their own people and build weapons and threaten the world and ultimately break out to a nuclear weapon program."
In a separate development, a crucial oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia that was shuttered by the kingdom earlier this month after coming under attack is once again operating, according to a Saudi government official.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said operations are near pre-attack levels and that the pipeline should be running at its full capacity within a few weeks.
The kingdom relies on the East-West Pipeline, which runs the breadth of the country, to move its crude from oil processing facilities on the Gulf to ports on its western, Red Sea coast. From there it can be put on tankers for export.
Saudi Arabia blamed an Iran-backed militia in Iraq for the drone attack that forced the temporary shutdown of the 1,200-kilomeer (745-mile) pipeline.
Satellite imagery indicated tankers on Sunday loaded some 12.5 million barrels of oil at the Yanbu export terminal, which is supplied by the East-West Pipeline, and the nearby terminal at Al Muajjiz, the data and analytical firm Kpler said in a report.
—
AP writer David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany contributed reporting.
Iranian missiles and banners showing portraits of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, and the late armed forces commanders, who were killed in Israeli and U.S. strikes, are displayed in a military exhibition commemorating the anniversary of the start of the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war at Baharestan Square, in Tehran, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iran's Revolutionary Guard spokesman Gen. Hossein Mohebbi speaks during a news conference in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iran's Revolutionary Guard spokesman Gen. Hossein Mohebbi speaks during a news conference in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Motorbikes drive past Iranian missiles and banners showing portraits of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, center, and the late armed forces commanders and nuclear scientists, who were killed in Israeli and U.S. strikes, displayed in a military exhibition commemorating the anniversary of the start of the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war at Baharestan Square, in Tehran, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
