Shohei Ohtani is close behind the pace of Aaron Judge’s 62 home run season last year, and as Judge just had a close-up look of the two-way superstar, he told reporters on Wednesday that it would be great for baseball if Ohtani toppled Judge’s American League home run record after just one season.
“Records are meant to be broken,” Judge said, via Sarah Venezuela of the LA Times. “It's just a record. It'll be exciting for the game if he went out there and he got 63-plus, so we'll see what happens.”
Judge beat out Ohtani for AL MVP after his historic 2022 campaign, and after getting off to another spectacular start this season, he has been forced to watch from the dugout as he recovers from a toe injury. He marveled at how “incredible” Ohtani has been, noting he prefers to watch him do his thing on TV and not in person against the Yanks, and if he is able to eclipse 62 home runs, it will be Judge’s turn to try and counter.
“I've got quite a few games left or quite a few years left in this game,” Judge said. “So he breaks it, then I'll get another opportunity to go out there and try to do something special. But I'm not too focused on it right now. I'm always wishing him the best, always excited to see what he can accomplish, but I'm not too worried about the record.”
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