NEW YORK — Aaron Boone ran inside the New York Yankees’ clubhouse during Thursday’s game to see if there were more specifics on Aaron Judge’s injury, but there was nothing.Boone thought he’d have an answer after the Yankees’ 2-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians, but still nothing. The unknown had caused the fanbase to panic and think the worst.Finally, late Thursday night, the Yankees announced Judge had been diagnosed with a stress fracture of the first rib on his right side. He will be re-examined in four to six weeks before the club determines the next steps. He is expected to return before the season ends.Earlier, the Yankees sent pictures of Judge’s MRIs, CT scans and X-rays to Dr. Gregory Pearl in Dallas. According to Pearl’s biography, he “has made significant contributions to vascular surgery education and clinical practice, particularly in complex vascular procedures and thoracic outlet syndrome management in high-performance athletes.”Pearl has performed thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) surgery on Merrill Kelly, Chris Carpenter and Josh Beckett, among other players, over the years. It is still unknown if Judge is dealing with TOS, or if the stress fracture is the only injury.The more time Judge misses, the No. 1 question that will surround the Yankees is whether they have enough offense to withstand an absence of the three-time American League MVP.This season, if you remove every Judge plate appearance, the Yankees have a 109 wRC+ and a .744 OPS, according to FanGraphs. That would rank them as the fourth-best offense in MLB, tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates. With Judge, the Yankees have a 115 wRC+ and a .765 OPS, good for the second-best offense behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.Judge has had a weird season, even before he started dealing with the effects of his rib injury. Although he owns a .907 OPS, he has looked a tick off all year. He has chased pitches out of the strike zone at his highest rate since 2016. He has swung at pitches inside the strike zone at his lowest rate since 2016. He’s swung at the fewest meatballs (pitches thrown in the heart of the strike zone) since 2016. His ground-ball rate is the highest it’s been since 2021.Judge has been the best hitter of his generation, but he has not looked like the otherworldly player fans have grown accustomed to watching. Meanwhile, Ben Rice has been the Yankees’ best hitter this season. His 181 wRC+ ranks second in MLB, behind Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez.