Even though the Yankees are on the verge of having their first losing season since 1992, fans can take heart from the team’s promising future.

As time goes on, Aaron Judge just improves. Even though he missed the first seven weeks of the season with a ruptured ligament in his right big toe, his season was not derailed.

His impressive performance on the road and in right field on Tuesday night are encouraging signs of his recovery.

“He has really come into his own. Manager Aaron Boone stated, “He’s not 100 percent, but I feel like he’s moving around, and that’s gotten better since the first day.” I can’t say for certain that he will be fully recovered this year. In my opinion, he has adequate space for movement there. He can defend himself. For us, he’s been having what seem to be really steady at-bats. He probably can’t match your level of physical ability while you’re going all out.’

The 31-year-old Judge returned to action on July 28 and has since posted a.260/.458/.488 slash line with a.946 OPS, more walks (16) than strikeouts (13), and an overall positive batting line. He’s started six games in right field and is doing it more frequently recently. On Tuesday, he made his fourth appearance in the outfield in the past seven days. He has hit well on this road trip, collecting an 8-for-23 line with a home run and five runs batted in.

While the future cannot be predicted, it seems likely that Judge will not need surgery on his injured toe. Boone now believes that surgery is not in the cards for the outfielder, but there are still six weeks left in the season and the plan for the player will be established later.

“I don’t think surgery is in the plans,” he said. It’s not what I’m hearing. However, the offseason hasn’t started yet. His progress is encouraging. The fact that he’s played in so many games in the field is proof of that, and even just seeing him run the bases has shown me that he’s been steadily getting better.

Still, if the Yankees truly go into the tank and play meaningless games in September, Judge may not finish the season.

When the day began, they were 5 1/2 games down from the final AL wild card and now they were only one game ahead.500, probably between 60 and 59.