After bashing two home runs and nearly hitting a third (a double that hit off the wall) on Monday night, then hitting another in Seattle on Tuesday night, Aaron Judge has moved into the league lead in home runs, slugging percentage, OPS, and OPS+.
Even with a 10-day IL stint in between, Judge is leading the pack in long balls once again, an incredible encore after smashing 62 homers in 2022, helping earn himself a $360 million contract.
Incredibly, Judge is off to a better start than he was in that historic season that earned him a massive payday.
Judge has now played 46 games this season, and when compared to his first 45 last season, Judge is actually posting a slightly higher OPS (1.104 compared to 1.044 last season), and has the same amount of home runs. His batting average (.304) is just five points lower than where it was through 46 games in 2022, and has 10 doubles compared to nine last year.
Of course, the IL stint hurts his chances of replicating last year’s total in the home run department, as he played 45 games by the 47th game for the Yankees last season, and the team played its 56th game on Monday night. Still, Judge is averaging more home runs per at-bat this season than he did during his magical 62-homer campaign.
Simply put, Judge, in many ways, is even better than he was during last season, one of the best offensive campaigns in league history.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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