NEW YORK — The New York Yankees placed Aaron Judge on the 10-day injured list Friday, a day after announcing the slugger has a stress fracture in one of his ribs that will keep him off the field indefinitely.

The three-time AL MVP will rest and have limited activity before getting re-evaluated and having additional imaging in about four to six weeks. The Yankees said in a statement that Judge is expected to return “at some point this season.”

“Very disappointed,” Judge said before the Yankees opened a three-game series against the Red Sox. “That’s why we went through every measure we could to get an expert to take a look to see what was going on in there, but definitely not what you want to hear — any fracture or anything like that.”

“He really is going to have some downtime,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “So once he gets cleared to have the imaging and stuff like that, hopefully it comes back positive at that point and then we can start mapping out a return to play protocol and expect him back and get a clearer picture of when that would be.”

Judge underwent a CT scan on Thursday and had an MRI earlier in the week when he met with a specialist. The Yankees initially said Judge had shoulder soreness before clarifying the injury was to a rib on his right side, which was first revealed when Judge underwent testing on Monday, the team’s off day.

Judge said he first experienced pain while making a diving catch on April 26 in Houston and added that crashing into the right-field fence to complete a catch on May 3 against Baltimore “didn’t help.” The pain intensified last weekend, when he was 2 for 12 against the Athletics, leading to an array of tests and findings from Dr. Gregory Pearl, a vascular surgery specialist in Dallas.

“I kind of felt the symptoms for the past month and we did everything we could to make sure, we could be out there,” Judge said. “In Sacramento it just got a little worse. So, I fought it as long as I could.”

Including a stint on the COVID-19 injured list in July 2021, Judge is on the IL for the 10th time since debuting Aug. 13, 2016. He missed 45 games with a fractured right wrist in 2018, 54 games with a strained left oblique in 2019 and 42 games with a fractured toe in 2023 after crashing into a wall while making a catch at Dodger Stadium.

The Yankees recalled Spencer Jones from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre for his second stint with the team to replace Judge.