NEW YORK — In their first game after officially putting Aaron Judge on the injured list with a stress fracture in his ribs, the New York Yankees’ offense looked sluggish.Boston Red Sox starter Sonny Gray threw only 79 pitches in 6 1/3 innings, reliever Justin Slaten had a four-pitch inning and closer Aroldis Chapman was erratic, but the Yankees could not capitalize in the bottom of the ninth in Friday’s 5-3 loss.Two key players who they’ll need to produce even more without Judge — Ben Rice and Trent Grisham — homered. But the Yankees will need more contributors. The bottom third of their order finished 2-for-11, and collectively had some of the worst at-bats of the night, including shortstop Anthony Volpe, who watched three fastballs down the middle from Chapman to make the first out of the ninth inning.The Yankees’ offense should have enough to survive without Judge, but Friday’s loss will not quiet their doubters.Before Friday’s game, general manager Brian Cashman discussed the state of the team and the impact of losing Judge for the next several weeks. Here are three takeaways from that conversation:Will Ben Rice get more catching opportunities?In a surprising move, the Yankees optioned J.C. Escarra to Triple A after Friday’s game. In place of Escarra, the Yankees will promote Ali Sánchez, a right-handed-hitting catcher from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, a team source told The Athletic. Sánchez has a .702 OPS this season in Triple A and a .576 OPS against left-handed pitching.It’s likely that Sánchez is not a solution to the Yankees’ catching problem, but manager Aaron Boone now has a true platoon option who could play against lefty pitchers. The Red Sox are starting two lefties, Ranger Suarez and Connelly Early, in the final two games of the series.Austin Wells has a minus-3 wRC+ against left-handed pitching this season, meaning that everyone reading this has been 3 percent better against lefties than Wells this season. Promoting Sánchez, at minimum, is perhaps a sign that the Yankees’ patience with Wells is thinning.