Despite an injury that landed him on the IL for two months, New York Yankees star Aaron Judge pieced together a decent 2019 season. His stats weren’t quite what he and the team wanted, but were far above average.
Judge landed on the IL in April after he pulled an oblique muscle while swinging in a game against the Royals. He would return in June and struggle at times but wound up with a .272 average on the year. He had a ton of trouble getting his power back after the injury but got it back by August.
Additionally, the 27-year-old of Linden, California, hit 27 home runs and drove in 55 runs. His slugging was .540 with a .921 OPS.
Judge was flawless on defense, literally. In 92 games played in the field, Judge never made an error. That was a massive part of why he had a 5.4 WAR in just 378 at-bats.
2020 Expectations
The Yankees need Judge to stay healthy in 2020. He was healthy throughout 2017, and look at what he did. He won the Rookie of the Year and finished second in the MVP (to Jose Altuve, who cheated his way there).
It would also be great if Judge could have a little more consistency at the plate and reduce the number of strikeouts. A ton of his outs are via the strikeout, and when he gets cold, he strikes out almost every time up to bat. I understand that it’s something that happens to power hitters, but it needs to try to be avoided.
If Judge could bat around .280, that would be fantastic. He needs to continue to drive the ball and hit home runs from the second spot in the order. If DJ LeMahieu can lead off with a single or double frequently, then it sets up Judge to bring him home with an extra-base hit or even a weakly hit single.
The Yankees are expecting big things out of Aaron Judge in his fourth full major league season.