New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge had a scorching-hot start to his season, and now has a big honor to show for it.
The MLB announced on Friday that Judge earned AL Player of the Month honors while leading the league in home runs and RBIs. The announcement brought a strong reaction from the Yankees, who praised Judge’s accomplishment.
“A Historic Start,” the team shared in a post on X.
Aaron Judge Gets Yankees Out to Huge Start
As the MLB noted in its announcement, the Yankees slugger is among the league’s best across a host of offensive categories.
“Judge’s production has been especially noteworthy,” the report noted. “He comes into Friday tied for the MLB lead in homers (10) and leads all hitters with a .427 average and a 1.282 OPS. He also leads MLB with 50 hits and 89 total bases. Judge closed April on an incredible heater, hitting .500 over his final 50 plate appearances and compiling seven multihit games. He entered Friday leading all players with a 2.9 wins above replacement, per Baseball Reference.”
Judge helped the Yankees get out to an 18-13 start, leading a competitive AL East. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he believes Judge still has plenty of room to get better, saying the AL home run leader hasn’t even gotten hot yet.
“I say this and I’m not being cute or funny – but I don’t think he’s been that hot yet, honestly,” Boone said, via USA Today. “He’s getting his hits and I think it’s a credit to how great he is.”
The reigning AL MVP is already off to a strong start in defending his title. As USA Today noted, Judge is well above his 2024 pace through just the first month of the season.
“Consider this: Judge won his second MVP last season, finishing with a .322 average, 1.159 OPS and 58 home runs, equaling the 10.8 WAR he produced in his 62-homer 2022 MVP campaign,” the report noted. “At the end of April 2024? He was batting just .207, with a pedestrian 116 adjusted OPS.”
Another Big Honor for the Yankees
Judge isn’t the only member of the Yankees off to a hot start. The MLB also announced that ace Max Fried earned AL Pitcher of the Month honors after he started the season 5-0, tied for the most wins in baseball, while leading the AL with a 1.19 ERA.
The Yankees were 6-0 in games Fried started through the first month of the season, which Boone said is a reflection of the true depth of talent on the Yankees.
“We’re going to be really good,” Boone said, via the New York Post. “So, not surprising we’re that good when our ace starts and is pitching as well as he is. We got a really good club. We got to keep getting better, and confident we will.”
Judge added that Fried’s brilliance on the mound transcends to the other players on the team.
“Just his demeanor on the mound, his presence, he’s attacking every single hitter,” Judge said. “When you attack guys like that, that’s when you start to get some of those swings we saw there where they’re kind of in between, almost guessing, ‘Is it the heater? Is it the splitter?’
