The New York Yankees are rolling. After another victory in San Diego, they are 36-17 and comfortably lead the AL East against all odds. The pitching has been absolutely outstanding, but it helps when you have a truly gifted and generational hitter like Aaron Judge.
The captain is slashing an incredible .275/.411/.619 with 17 doubles, 16 home runs, and a 1.030 OPS as of Saturday afternoon. A few weeks ago, however, he was seriously slumping and people were wondering if he was injured.
After striking out twice and going 0-for-4 on April 26, his slash line was a pitiful .178/.317/.356. That was almost a full month of action so yes, people were concerned. But the Yankees star showed that, if healthy, his talent will eventually prevail and boy, what he has done after that day has been impressive.
Yankees star Aaron Judge is already back on track
In fact, if you look at the numbers and compare them to the historic 2022 campaign he had (yes, the one in which he hit 62 home runs), you can firmly say he is already on a similar power pace to the one he showed that year.
The Yankees outfielder had 17 homers through May 24 in that magical 2022 season, and he is up to 16 this year on the very same cutoff date. He had eight doubles back then and is up to 17 now, and his OPS through that date is already very similar: 1.079 in 2022 vs. 1.030 this year.
The fact that Judge is already on a similar pace to do what he did on the best year of his career after such a miserable start speaks volumes about his talent and, above all things, his will to improve and his determination.
Simply put, we can chalk up his woeful start to the fact he didn’t have a full spring training and needed some time to find his footing at the plate. Once he did, he returned to top form and showed the world he was still the best hitter in baseball when healthy.