Aaron Judge is one month into yet another potentially historic regular season.
This one was born out of October failure.
“I wanted to come out, especially after how we ended the year last year not winning the World Series, there was a lot of work to be done,” Judge said this week. “All you can do is look in the mirror and try to figure out ways to get better and try to improve. Hopefully, that inspires somebody else to improve.”
It is only one month, and still five to go before the calendar flips to the only month where Judge can ultimately get his vengeance from batting .184 (9-for-49) with a .752 OPS last postseason.
But in the interim, he has immediately gotten a leg up on each of his other two MVP seasons.
The irony was not lost that the Yankees were playing at Camden Yards this week to close out April with Judge batting an absurd .427 with a 1.282 OPS and 10 home runs through 31 games.
He stood at his locker Wednesday night shrugging off the red-hot start, similar to how he shrugged off his slow start while standing at the same locker in the same clubhouse on May 2 of last year when he finished a series against the Orioles batting just .197 with a .725 OPS and six home runs through his first 33 games.
“You just got to go up there with confidence, no matter what,” Judge said Wednesday night. “I felt the same, even when I was hitting .170 last year and you guys were asking me all the questions about, ‘When are you going to turn it around?’ I can’t focus on results. I got to focus on the process and trying to get a job done. If you do that for 500 at-bats, good things are going to happen.”
Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (99) hits a single during the fifth inning against the Baltimore Orioles.Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images
Judge insisted he tries not to look at his batting average, as gaudy as it may be, until the season is over.
In the best all-around offensive season of his career last year, despite the tough start, he finished with a .322 batting average and 1.159 OPS.
There is no guessing where those numbers might end up this year with a dominant 31 games under his belt.
Yankees’ Aaron Judge rounds the bases after hitting a home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles.AP
“I’m not going to put anything past him,” manager Aaron Boone said with a chuckle.
Entering Thursday, Judge led all major leaguers with a 3.2 fWAR. The next closest was San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. at 2.1.
The 33-year-old had an OPS-plus of 262 — 162 percent better than league average — and was doing so with the lowest strikeout rate of his career at 20 percent (down from his lifetime average of 27.7 percent).
And the crazy part?
“When I say this, I’m not being cute or funny: Honestly, I don’t think he’s really been that hot yet,” Boone said on Tuesday afternoon before Judge homered in back-to-back games. “Honestly. He’s getting his hits and it’s a credit to how great he is. But when he gets really going and hitting balls in the seats, buckle up.”
The closest comparison to Judge’s 2025 start came in 2017, on the way to his AL Rookie of the Year, when he hit .303 with 10 home runs and a 1.161 OPS in 22 April games.
Judge has had 31-game stretches similar to this before, ones where he had a higher OPS or hit more home runs, but not with as high a batting average.
Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (99) celebrates with New York Yankees first baseman Ben Rice (22) after hitting a home run.IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
“This guy’s unbelievable, man,” said veteran right-hander Carlos Carrasco.
Only 11 other Yankees have hit over .400 through their first 31 games of a season. The last one to do it was Paul O’Neill, who in 1994 hit .467 with a 1.407 OPS through 31 games.
Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth were the only other ones to do it with a higher OPS than Judge has now.
“He’s like a great 3-point shooter at the plate right now,” Boone said, citing their shooting at a 43 percent clip. “It’s remarkable, obviously. I always say we’re running out of superlatives or things to say about it. But what he’s doing, he’s playing a different game.”
