Breaking news: Aaron Judge set new MLB record made history again.
Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees is without a doubt one of the greatest players in Major League Baseball.
However, the ten-year pro is slicing a tremendous amount so far this season. For a tremendous 1.312 OPS, 432/.520/.792. Judge leads the American League by a significant margin with 3.0 bWAR despite only having played in 32 games so far. He is in the top 15 in walks, second in the Majors with 12 home runs, and leads MLB in RBIs with 33.
Those figures are not comparable to those in video games. When a nine-year-old plays in novice mode in MLB The Show, they receive statistics like that. We could be watching one of the best right-handed batters in the history of this game.
Making history
Not even 40 games into the season, Judge is already starting to rewrite the record books because of how well he has started.
Francys Romero of Besibol FR recently used his X account to highlight Judge’s season-opening record.
“Since 1920, no player in the American League has amassed a batting average of at least.400, 10 or more home runs, and 30 or more RBIs in March or April (minimum of 100 at-bats).”
Indeed, the Yankees slugger has performed even better in his previous 162 regular-season games. Judge has slashed.369/.494/.774 for a 1.268 OPS over that time, which is the greatest since Barry Bonds’ heyday.
Judge broke the American League Record by hitting 62 home runs in 2022, but he hasn’t yet reached Bonds’ 73-home run total in a single season. In Judge’s defense, it seems that Bonds received some assistance in order to accomplish that goal.
Judge’s strong start in the first four May games has maintained. The 6’7 beast has hit 34 home runs, had a WRC+ of 246 since the All-Star break last season, and walked nearly as much as he has struck out.
Elite in a variety of ways
Judge is a superb batsman, but he also plays excellent defense. According to Baseball Savant, the former first-round choice provides the Yankees a 98th percentile arm and an 81st percentile range in right field.
How one athlete can be so dominating in so many areas is difficult to understand. It’s also difficult to imagine how his $360 million, nine-year contract could turn out to be a good deal for New York. Hal Steinbrenner got Judge a great deal, but his old teammate Juan Soto signed for more than double that sum.
