The Judge Still Rules

A year removed from one of the best individual campaigns in baseball history, New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge is reminding everyone that even in a league brimming with talent, the Judge still rules.

Monday Night’s Heroics

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Last night, in a 9-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners, Judge went 3-4 with a walk, belting two home runs, bringing his total on the year to an AL-leading 17. As if Judge hadn’t done enough already, he robbed a home run off the bat of Teoscar Hernandez in the bottom of the 8th inning. A catch that only Aaron Judge and his 6’7″ frame could make. This marked the fourth time in his career that Judge both homered and robbed a homer in the same game, which is more than any other player in the last 20 MLB seasons.

Place Among the League Leaders

As if anyone needed a reminder of Judge’s greatness, here are some of his stats up to this point in the season and where he ranks among major leaguers:

WRC+ 191 (1st)
SLG .679 (1st)
OPS 1.087 (1st)
OBP (T-6th)
HR 17 (T-2nd)
FWAR 2.7 (4th)

Return From Injury

Despite missing 10 games due to a hip injury, Judge has found himself in familiar territory, at the top of the MLB leaderboards. Since returning from the IL on May 9th, he is 25-70 (.357 average), with 11 HR and 24 RBI, posting an OPS of 1.377 in the process. He is now averaging a home run every 9.53 at-bats. In last season’s record-breaking year, he hit one every 9.19 at-bats.

The Yankees X-Factor

After last night’s victory, the Yankees improved to 28-17 when Judge is in the lineup. When he does not play, they are 5-6. In the 11 games Judge missed, the Yankees averaged just 3.55 runs per game which would rank 28th out of the 30 teams in the league, ahead of the historically bad Oakland Athletics and the Cleveland Guardians. When Judge does play, the Yankees score 4.98 runs per game which would be good for the 7th most in the majors.

All of this production has Aaron Judge just 0.1 WAR behind the league leaders, according to FanGraphs, even though he’s spent time on the IL. He is once again carrying the Yankees on his back and if the last few weeks are any indication, it might be another historic summer in the Bronx.