Another historic month went down in the record books for Aaron Judge.
And not only is he on pace to surpass his record-breaking 2022 MVP season, he’s also trying to get another shot at the only thing missing from that season besides a championship: the Triple Crown.
By the time he was given a day of rest on Monday, Judge had raised his batting average to .316, just 0.1 percentage points behind Angels infielder Luis Rengifo for the AL lead.
His 31 home runs and 82 RBIs lead both the AL and MLB and put him in prime position to once again challenge for the Triple Crown, something that hasn’t happened since Miguel Cabrera in 2012.
“It would be awesome, but that’s not my goal,” Judge said after going 2-for-4 with one home run in the Yankees’ win over the Blue Jays on Sunday. “Like a lot of other guys in this room, we don’t play for that. We play to win. Anytime we put on these pinstripes and have ‘NY’ on our backs, we’re here to win. It would be awesome, but I think we’re focused on winning first and foremost.”
Of course, Judge’s fantastic 2022 season was marred in October when the Yankees were swept in the American League Championship Series.
With Juan Soto now in the mix, the team will need a more stable supporting cast, but Judge is playing at a different level more than halfway through the season.
To keep Judge at bats and avoid an intentional walk like the one the Blue Jays gave him Saturday, the Yankees will need to prove they can produce consistently behind him, and that will depend on cleanup hitter Alex Verdugo, especially with Giancarlo Stanton out.
In a year when offensive power has declined across the major leagues, Judge is dominating pitchers like no one else.
The league average OPS through Monday was .705. Judge’s OPS was 1.144. Only Shohei Ohtani (1.034) and Soto (1.005) were close to that OPS level.
“It’s a lot better than what we’re seeing,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s hard to figure out what the combination of him and Juan is doing, especially in this hitting environment.”
Judge is also performing well in the 2022 season. At this point in the year (84 games), he is batting .282 with 30 home runs and a .968 OPS.
What makes Judge’s overall season performance even more absurd is the fact that he started off slowly over the first few weeks.
In 27 games, he hit .178 with four home runs and a .674 OPS. In his next 57 games, he hit .385 with 27 home runs and a 1.381 OPS.
In June alone, he recorded a batting average of .409, an OPS of 1.378, 11 home runs, and 37 RBIs.
“He’s an outstanding player,” Gerrit Cole said. “He’s adapted to the season well and is just working hard, just doing what we expect him to do. He’s capable of historic plays, MVP-caliber plays, other-worldly plays. He’s just a great player.”
Judge hit 62 home runs in 2022, breaking Roger Maris’ AL record, and led the league with 131 RBIs, but his batting average was a career-best .311, just behind Luis Arraez’s .316 average.
Judge doesn’t care much about flashy individual stats, but he does value maintaining a high batting average, even if it’s an old-fashioned way of thinking.
“It means guys behind me are on base,” Judge said. “When you’re in the middle of the lineup, you’ve got to produce results, especially when you have guys on base. [Anthony] Volpe and Soto have been doing their thing all year. We just need to follow what they’re doing.”
