Aaron Judge is AL Player of the Month in May, so let's break down how ridiculous his month was
Aaron Judge, after a torrid homecoming series where he hit three home runs and had three multi-hit games in San Francisco, was announced as the American League Player of the Month for May.
Was there even another noteworthy candidate?
Judge, after a lackluster April, went absolutely ballistic last calendar month, batting .361 with a 1.397 OPS that was helped along by a .479 on-base percentage. He also smoked 15 home runs in 30 games, a casual 162-game pace of 81 (!) home runs.
As we’ve heard BT and Sal on Monday debate whether Judge is somehow still underappreciated despite his ridiculous production, what better time to take a look at just how absurd Judge was performing in the month of May?
You’ve now seen the baseline numbers above, but diving deeper, Judge’s May surge is even more impressive, and, frankly more incomprehensible. Judge was able to barrel up the baseball with a frequency that has been seldom seen in MLB history. Through the month of May, a stretch of 97 at-bats, Judge posted a barrel percentage of 47.8 percent. That’s right, out of all the times Judge put the ball in play last month, nearly half of them were barrelled up. That is a level of locked in that few could dream of achieving.
For context, during his historic 2022 campaign in which he broke the Yankee (and American League) record with 62 home runs, Judge never posted a barrel percentage of more than 32.3 percent in a single month. In 2017, his ridiculous Rookie of the Year introduction, his highest monthly barrel percentage was 36.1 percent in September. For further context outside of Judge himself, the MLB league average for barrel percentage is just over seven percent.
Judge reached base in nearly half of his at-bats in May thanks to an absurd blend of power and plate discipline, as Katie Sharp noted that Judge is one of only four players in league history to log over 25 extra-base hits while also drawing over 22 walks in a calendar month, joining the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, and Jimmie Foxx. Nobody in MLB history has logged more extra-base hits in the month of May, as Judge and Ty Cobb (in 1921) finished the month with 26.
Then there is the remarkable turnaround from Judge’s tepid April to his scorching hot May. When the month began, Judge was tied for 60th in the league in WAR, per FanGraphs. At the end of the month, Judge was first in all of baseball, a meteoric rise in just 31 days. Judge now also leads the league in home runs, slugging percentage, wRC+, and walk rate.
Sticking with the wRC+ department, where 100 is the league average, Judge posted a 282 wRC+ in May. The next highest? Jose Ramirez at 195.
So, was it one of the best months of baseball we’ve ever seen? Not exactly. Babe Ruth posted a higher OPS in July of 1920, the year he belted 54 home runs in his debut season with the Yankees. Barry Bonds posted nearly five months that were statistically better than Judge in scattered months between just 2001 and 2004. But you could make the case that it was Judge’s best ever, even better than his final month of the 2017 season, or any in 2022. Simply put, it was a special month by an undeniably special player, and perhaps BT and Sal are right. Even the highest of praise for Judge still leaves the feeling that the level of appreciation isn’t matching the otherworldly level of play.
Oh, and to start the month of June, Judge is 4-for-6 with a home run, three walks, and three runs scored, so maybe we'll see you back here in a month for another chat.
