Aaron Judge went 4-for-5 with a double in Sunday’s series finale against the A’s, raising his average to .409 on the season to increase his lead atop all of Major League Baseball.
Judge’s monster day game 24 hours after he belted two home runs to reassert himself atop the league lead, as he currently leads all Triple Crown categories as we hit the middle of May.
Fitting this all came in Sacramento, where the A's are currently calling a minor league park home, since Judge might as well be in a higher league than everyone else at this point.
Still, with every voice of praise for Judge’s ridiculous season so far, there is the common refrain, “Let’s see him do it in October.”
To possess that mindset in May is to deprive yourself as a baseball fan of what is one of the greatest stretches of baseball seen since the end of the steroid era.
Judge’s playoff struggles are well documented. His quest for redemption would still be months away. In the here and now, we are being treated to one of the greatest right-handed hitters the game has ever seen. The most prolific home run hitter in the game, less than three years removed from setting the American League single-season home run record, is currently on pace to eclipse Ted Williams’ .406 batting average that he posted in 1941. Judge is putting up a balance of contact and power that has rarely been seen, if ever, in a sport that is centuries old.
Over his last 162 games, Judge has 65 home runs and 163 RBI, all while playing a more than solid right field. He is on pace to flirt with his AL home run record again, while also being on watch to become the first .400 hitter in Major League Baseball since Williams. If his current pace is held up (which is wildly not out of the realm of possibility given how absurdly good he is), Judge would lead the league in OPS, OPS+, WAR, home runs, RBI, and total bases for the third time in four years. You could argue that, had it not been for a concrete base in the Dodger Stadium outfield, Judge would be on pace to win a fourth straight MVP award.
Take Judge’s numbers since the start of his historic 2022 season. In a span of 461 games, he is batting .314 with a 1.122 OPS and a ludicrous 211 OPS+, meaning he has been more than twice as productive as an average MLB player for nearly three full seasons of baseball. If your knee-jerk response is “But what about the playoffs,” then you’re just doing the whole fandom thing wrong.
Sure, this is New York, and October is what matters most. But Judge’s story isn’t over, and as superstars like Alex Rodriguez showed, a talent of Judge’s level will eventually triumph if given enough chances under the brightest lights. But that discussion should be off the table until the time comes. The goal is first to make it to October, and Judge leads the Yankees to that spot year after year, putting together 162 games of must-see TV. If that can’t be enjoyed, then why are we watching the daily grind of a baseball season?
When it’s all said and done, Judge has a real chance to go down as one of, if not the greatest Yankee ever from a numbers standpoint, not to mention his impeccable off-the-field reputation and his label as captain. Sure, winning titles is what matters most, but fans should be able to put that aside and appreciate greatness in its most glaring form. That’s what we’re witnessing with Judge, a homegrown Yankee who has blossomed into one of the greatest hitters this generation has ever seen, and somehow, he keeps managing to one-up himself.
Let’s talk about October when the leaves start changing. For now, it would be a lot more enjoyable to watch, without reservation, one of the best players the most accomplished franchise in sports history has ever seen.