How does Aaron Judge compare to the greatest hitters in New York Yankees history?
By Jamie Barton, CNN
(CNN) — Aaron Judge walked out at Fenway Park on Friday night knowing that just one home run would see him overtake Joe DiMaggio and move into fourth outright on the New York Yankees’ all-time list.
He wasted no time.
The two-time American League MVP jumped on the second pitch he saw – a fastball from Lucas Giolito – and crushed his 362nd career homer 468 feet over the Green Monster on the way to a 4-1 win over the Boston Red Sox.
Only Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig have hit more home runs in the pinstripes than Judge.
“It’s special, but just like all those guys in front of me and on those lists, they weren’t playing for records. They were playing to win,” Judge said after Friday’s game, per MLB.com. “So I’m just trying to follow in their footsteps. I’m here to win. I’m trying to help put this team in the best possible position every single night.”
It’s been quite the week for Judge. The 33-year-old only overtook Yogi Berra for home runs on Tuesday, disrupting a top five of Ruth, Mantle, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Berra which had stood since 1966.
Judging Judge
Judge’s home run numbers don’t lie – he is the Yankees’ best slugger since the 1960s.
The 33-year-old has not only cracked the franchise’s top five, but he has also done so with considerably fewer at-bats than his peers. With a rate of 0.09 home runs per plate appearance, only Ruth – with the same rate – can really rival Judge in terms of slugging efficiency.
Judge’s career batting average of .292 is very good, but is joint 25th on the Yankees’ all-time list, some way off the .349 and .340 achieved by Ruth and Gehrig, respectively.
Nonetheless, his on-base percentage ranks fourth, a mark of just how scared pitchers have been of Judge during his decade at the plate.
If you want to dive deeper into the statistics, Judge ranks excellently in WAR (Wins Above Replacement), the metric that estimates the number of wins a player adds to a team compared to the average “replacement-level” player.
The metric has Judge in sixth place among Yankees position players, behind Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, DiMaggio, and Derek Jeter.
But to focus so much on their individual numbers is to miss one crucial detail. Nine of the top 10 players for WAR in franchise history have won at least one World Series title in the pinstripes. Yogi Berra won 10.
The one who has not is Judge. That is not entirely his fault, of course – the team has only made the World Series once in his career, last year’s loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.
But the California native struggled throughout the postseason and had just one hit and seven strikeouts across the first three World Series games.
When the loss was eventually confirmed, Judge found himself in a reflective mood.
“I think falling short in the World Series will stick with me until I die, probably,” he told reporters.
“Just like every other loss, those things don’t go away. They’re battle scars along the way, and hopefully when my career is over we’ve got a lot of battle scars but hopefully a lot of victories along the way too.”
While his own personal legacy may not have been at the forefront of his mind in that moment, Judge will have known that, without a World Series title to his name, it is difficult to consider him alongside Ruth, Mantle, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Jeter.
He will also know, however, that his first-inning homer against the Red Sox on Friday propelled the Yankees to a 1.5-game lead over Boston, and a much better shot at home-field advantage in the Wild Card round.
Win a World Series this year, and we can start to talk about Judge among the very best hitters in Yankees history.
The-CNN-Wire
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