BALTIMORE — Aaron Judge is admittedly still not at 100 percent.

But even a decent fraction of the reigning AL MVP is better than most players, and once Judge was given the assurance that the torn ligament in his right big toe had healed enough to not be at serious risk of making it worse by playing, all parties involved cleared him for takeoff.

For the first time since June 3, Judge was back in the Yankees lineup, batting second and serving as DH on Friday night after he was activated from the injured list in time for a critical series against the Orioles at Camden Yards.

“That was always my biggest concern was coming back too early, when it’s not fully stable and reinjuring it even worse,” Judge said before he went 0-for-1 with three walks in the Yankees’ 1-0 loss to the Orioles on Friday night. “I didn’t want to come back and make it worse and then this is something that leads into next year and the following years. So we’re at a point where, talking with a couple doctors, the ligament’s stable. The last couple MRIs didn’t really show much healing, but this one [earlier this week] did. We’re in a good spot right now.”

So long as Judge steers clear of any more concrete ledges, like the one at Dodger Stadium where he suffered the initial injury, the Yankees don’t believe playing through the toe issue will make it severely worse.

“Anytime you go out there, you’re taking some risks because things could happen,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But there is a feeling that it would take another traumatic incident to hurt it as opposed to the basic wear and tear.”

Because Judge skipped a rehab assignment, the Yankees will build his workload back up cautiously, splitting his starts between DH and right field. He may not play in all three games of this series and will have some off days during the Yankees’ stretch of 13 games in 13 days — the first 10 of which are against the Orioles, Rays and Astros, three teams ahead of the Yankees in the playoff chase.

“Obviously as much as there’s urgency for us, we gotta be smart about that,” Boone said.

But Judge insisted that he received enough good action in the two simulated games he played in on Tuesday and Wednesday in Tampa to show him he was ready to rejoin the Yankees.

“If I’m able to do that, I’m able to play in the big leagues,” Judge said. “I’ve done rehab assignments where I might not see a pitch to hit all game and I might not get a fly ball all game. But in this situation [with sim games], we were able to control it a little better and stress it a little bit and see where we’re at.”

The Yankees went 19-23 in their captain’s absence, dropping out of playoff position and they are 3 ¹/₂ games behind in the chase for the final AL wild-card spot after the loss Friday.

Since Judge last played, the Yankees’ offense largely cratered without him. From June 4 through Thursday, the Yankees ranked 27th in OPS (.670), 25th in slugging percentage (.374), 27th in on-base percentage, 30th in batting average (.220) and 27th in runs per game (3.88).

But Judge said he did not feel pressure to get back sooner because of the Yankees’ struggles.

“I want to be there when times are tough and I want to be there when we’re rolling,” Judge said. “Just had to get right.”

While Boone said he hoped Judge’s return could be “a little shot in the arm for us as a team,” it remains unknown how effective he will be at the plate. The 6-foot-7, 282-pound slugger will wear a protective covering on his right foot in the batter’s box, but will still be trying to tolerate the pain in his toe without it sapping his production.

“I don’t think it’ll be 100 percent till the end of the year,” Judge said. “I think our biggest goal was just getting to a point where I can play, I can tolerate it.”