NEW YORK — Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider was so sick of seeing Aaron Judge swing the bat that he did something no other manager had done in 52 years. With two outs and no one on base in the second inning for the New York Yankees on Saturday, Schneider intentionally walked Judge.
“I honestly didn’t feel like seeing him swing. That was kind of it,” Schneider said, chuckling. “He’s in a different category, I think, than anyone else in the league to where he can just flip the script of a game with one swing.”
Not even Barry Bonds, who finished his career with 688 intentional walks, including 120 in 2004, was intentionally walked with two outs and no one on base within the first two innings of a game.
“That’s beyond the Bonds treatment,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Now we’ll call it the Judge treatment.”
Aaron Judge intentionally walked…with no one on and 2 outs. 😲
That’s respect. pic.twitter.com/a3ZIYMZ2Us
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 3, 2024
It’s hard to believe Judge is compiling a better season in 2024 than his historic 2022 campaign, but he is. Judge has a higher wRC+, OPS, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and walk rate and a lower strikeout rate than in 2022, the year he won the American League MVP after hitting 62 home runs. While Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. has risen to superstardom this season and is Judge’s main competitor for the trophy, the MVP race isn’t particularly close right now because of how absurd the Yankees’ center fielder has been.
Here are some of the wildest numbers from Judge’s season to date:
A 71-home run pace
Judge woke up April 27 with a .674 OPS and just four home runs. He had a .178 batting average and faced constant questions about his slow start and whether something was wrong. The reality was some of it was poor batted-ball luck. We wrote in mid-April that all of Judge’s advanced metrics were encouraging; it was just a matter of time before he’d break out. Judge hit a home run in Milwaukee on April 27, and he hit another one the following day.
Since April 27, Judge has 37 home runs in 84 games. If we extrapolate that over a 162-game season, Judge would be on pace for 71 home runs. Even with his poor April, Judge is still on pace for 59 home runs. With how he’s hit over the past three months, it’s fair to wonder just how many home runs Judge would have at this point.
Judge’s MLB-leading 41 home runs are eight more than Shohei Ohtani’s 33 and nine more than Anthony Santander’s 32; Santander has the second most in the American League.
How is this even possible?
This might be the wildest stat of all considering his season: Despite having the best year of his career, Judge is seeing more pitches in the strike zone than ever. His zone percentage is 49.1 percent, which is 2.3 percentage points higher than it was in 2022.
One reason pitchers are having to face Judge more often than they’d probably like is because Juan Soto is hitting in front of him. Soto has the second-highest on-base percentage in MLB (behind Judge, of course), so many of Judge’s at-bats are coming with a runner already on base.
“I think it doesn’t hurt to have greatness in front of you,” Boone said. “The fact that Juan is on base as much as he is, now all of a sudden the pitcher is in the stretch with a runner on base — he’s threatened more often than not. Hitting with runners on base is a benefit. I think there’s probably some benefit that Juan sees a ton of pitches. I think that doesn’t hurt. I think Aaron processes things well when he sees the pitcher, what they have, what they’re doing. I think that helps shape his game plan a little bit. I think the great ones take advantage of that.”
The Captain Connects 💪#AllRise pic.twitter.com/864Hq3M6YT
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 3, 2024
The Blue Jays did not care Sunday that Soto was already on base in the fifth inning. They intentionally walked Judge to face Austin Wells, who also walked. Giancarlo Stanton then struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning. We’ll see if teams take the Blue Jays’ strategy and decide it’s not worth pitching to Judge no matter the situation.
First-inning prowess
Judge has 16 first-inning home runs this season. Saturday, he tied Babe Ruth with the most first-inning home runs in a single season in franchise history.
“It’s surreal,” Judge said. “Anytime you hear those greats that are all around this building, all around the stadium, it’s almost kind of make-believe, some of the stuff they did. To be mentioned in any type of category in anything with those guys, it’s quite an honor.”
What’s more impressive: Judge’s 16 first-inning homers are more than what the Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Guardians, Royals, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants, Washington Nationals, New York Mets and Chicago White Sox have as teams.
If Judge hits three more first-inning home runs this season, it would be the most in a single season in MLB history, surpassing Alex Rodriguez’s 18 from 2001.
The best hitter in the world
Soto ranks second in wRC+ in MLB this season with 189. It’s Soto’s highest career mark in a non-shortened season. But Judge is at 216 wRC+. That would be the fifth-best offensive season since 1957. Only Bonds’ 2002, 2001 and 2004 seasons and Mickey Mantle’s 1957 season would rank higher.
“We’re watching greatness,” Boone said. “You try not to take that for granted, what you’re seeing 99 do. I feel now for a few years, where you hear a lot of the Babe, Mantle, (Lou) Gehrig, (Joe) DiMaggio, those kinds of names intertwined with a lot of things he’s doing.”
(Photo: Adam Hunger / Getty Images)
