As Aaron Judge continues to put up otherworldy numbers, now posting even better stats through 45 games than he did last season, several WFAN hosts are debating his place in baseball history, and where he will end up when it’s all said and done.
For Carton and Roberts, they decided to broach one particular hypothetical scenario: what would it take for Aaron Judge to break into the iconic Mount Rushmore of Yankee legends?
First, creating the Mount Rushmore for the most successful franchise in sports is a heated debate of its own. Babe Ruth is seemingly cemented at the top, with other greats like Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera close behind. Is Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle the top four? Is it Ruth, Gehrig, Jeter, and Rivera? Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, and Jeter? It’s hard to rank the top four of those seven iconic names.
With that in mind, is it even possible for Judge to get into the top four?
“He’s got a long way to go,” Evan said. “He’s got to win, though that’s not all on him…the other thing he needs to do, he’s just got to play. He just gas to go out there and play 145 games a year. If he does that and continues to put up the numbers he has last year and so far this year, yeah, who knows how we’re talking about it eight or nine years from now.”
Of course, there is one major caveat: Judge still doesn’t have a World Series ring, and every name listed above has at least four with the Yankees.
“If you’re comparing it to championships, he’ll never ever get there,” Evan said. “This Yankees team is not winning 4-5 championships.”
What if championships were wiped from the criteria, and it was just about the numbers?
“If he has five or six more years where he’s healthy, and he’s hitting 50 bombs a year, I think he can enter it,” Evan said. “It’s just hard, because the pantheon of Yankee greats is unlike any other franchise in sports.”
Craig doesn’t think it’s feasible.
“Think about what he would have to do, and he doesn’t have a lot of time left to do it, because he’s over 30 already,” Craig said. “He’s going to be one of the great Yankees, no doubt about it, at least he’s on that path. But no matter how good he is, it’s almost impossible to get into the top four.”
Regardless, both agree that Judge is currently the best position player in all of baseball.
Follow WFAN's afternoon team on Twitter: @CartonRoberts, @EvanRobertsWFAN, @TommyLugauer, and @CMacWFAN
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