Aaron Judge is not walking through that door.

That’s in part because the Yankees’ best and most vital player reported on Saturday that he still can’t walk without pain, much less run, which he sees as the key to really making progress from a torn ligament in his right big toe.

“It’s better, but not great, or else I’d be out there,” Judge said.

The way Judge sounded Saturday, no one should expect him back any time soon. He will not provide a timetable. He felt burned in 2018, when he incurred a chip fracture in his wrist and the team announced a return in about three weeks, then the healing took seven. This is not a player who wants to be perceived as a malingerer at anything, including rehab. So, the Yankees are more cautious about putting Judge’s business out on the street.

When I asked Judge if he knew a timetable for his return but was avoiding a public pronouncement due to that lingering annoyance, he said his doctors have offered a generalized forecast for when he might play again. But he acknowledged there also is murkiness. This is not a common baseball injury with a prescribed pathway to return. And even if it were, Judge is not common. He sits on his back right foot to hit, and at 6-foot-7, 280 pounds, arguably puts more force down on that foot to swing than anyone in the game.

Aaron Boone said he expects the slugger back this season. But every day without him exposes what a basketball team the Yankees have become. The absence of one player in baseball is not supposed to be like removing Nikola Jokic from the Nuggets or Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Bucks. But the Yankees look so inept without Judge that I asked him — a half season into his nine-year, $360 million contract — if he were underpaid.

He laughed, hesitated, modestly said, “I don’t think so” and then asked what I was up to. But it wasn’t a trick question. Just reality. Judge has been out of the lineup for 17 games since smashing his foot into an unpadded concrete slab at Dodger Stadium on June 3. The lineup in his absence is the equivalent of nine Joey Gallos. There might be a homer popped once in a while, but mostly it is just one horrific, unproductive, overmatched at-bat after another — certainly not enough strung together to put an opposing pitcher under duress.

The Yankees are hitting .193 in going 7-10 without Judge while averaging 3.0 runs a game — both MLB lows for the period. Five of the losses were by one run, another was by two, three were in extra innings. They have been one big hit away from wading troubled waters much better. But they pretty much can’t get that hit.

They won Saturday against the Rangers in the most Judge-less way — 1-0. Billy McKinney, who has been by far the Yankees’ best hitter in Judge’s absence, hit a fourth-inning homer (he has reached safely in all 15 of his games with hits in 14).

Luis Severino authored six shutout innings despite only getting four swings and misses (three in a row in one second-inning spurt) and allowing 11 struck balls of 99 mph or more. Then four relievers had to make 1-0 stand as the Yankees went 1-for-15 after McKinney’s homer.

It emphasized that the Yankees run prevention has remained generally strong, but the margin for error has evaporated. So, if Michael King goes from their most valuable reliever to shaky, the impact is far greater. Every pitch is a stress pitch because they can’t score enough to win a game comfortably. In the seven wins during Judge’s absence, the Yanks have bettered four runs just once. Boone is having to make the devilish decision to use (and not use) key relievers daily.

It all magnifies just what Judge brings and means.

I thought Judge was the AL MVP last season — emphasis on “Valuable” — over the brilliant Shohei Ohtani because the Yanks would have blown a 15 ¹/₂-game division lead without him near single-handedly carrying the offense in the second half. It was hard to be more valuable. Now, we are seeing that same offense without its best player and Judge is proving how valuable he is again — this time by not playing.

I also have always believed timeliness is integral to an MVP case — or an anti-MVP case. Will Josh Donaldson, DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton hit? Maybe. But the Yanks need them to hit for impact now, not as backup singers when Judge returns. Boone sat both Donaldson and LeMahieu on Saturday. That duo plus Stanton are 15-for-131 (.115) during this Judge IL stint — that includes 0-for-22 with runners in scoring position.

Judge, negativity-rejecting Yankee captain, predicted Donaldson, LeMahieu and Stanton would hit. He expects the return of Carlos Rodon to pair with Gerrit Cole will provide a difference-making rotation 1-2. He cited the Yankees’ DNA for enduring setbacks over 162 games and still making the playoffs.

But to get safely to October, and between now and when Judge returns, the Yankees need a big-money position player (or two or three) to be viewed as most valuable.