Aaron Judge Living Up To Preferred ‘Hitter’ Label With .396 Average

Aaron Judge started being labeled while playing collegiately at Fresno State. He didn’t like it.

Scouts looked at the 6-foot-7 Judge and immediately tabbed him as a “slugger.” While Judge could hit the ball over fence with regularity, he wanted to be described by another word.

Hitter.

“I grew up as a fan of the San Francisco Giants and I loved Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent and I also watched Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols,” said Judge, who grew up in Linden, Calif., near Sacramento. “You look at Pujols, he hit for power, but he also went gap to gap and was hitting .330 every single year and driving guys in.

“I just didn’t want to be, especially when I started coming up through the minor leagues, where everyone might say, ‘Oh, he’s just a power hitter.’ I just wanted to really be known as a team player and someone who could help their team win in as many ways possible.”

Judge has been one of the top home run hitters of his generation. He has gone deep 331 times since making his major-league debut late in the 2016 season and has had seasons of 62, 58 and 52 homers.

Aaron Judge Flirting With .400

Yet Judge is proving more than ever this season that he is every bit a hitter as a slugger. Those scouting report preceding Judge being a first-round draft pick by the Yankees in 2013 are obsolete.

Despite going 0 for 3 in a 1-0 victory over The Texas Rangers on Thursday at Yankee Stadium, Judge is hitting .396/.486/.743 with 16 home runs in 49 games. He leads MLB in each of the triple-slash categories as well as hits (74) and RBIs (44).

It is little wonder that Judge is being compared to Bonds.

No MLB player has batted at least .400 in a season since Ted Williams hit .406 for the Boston Red Sox in 1941. However, Judge is flirting with it.

Judge is making a strong case to win the third American League MVP award of his 10-year career. He has helped the Yankees to a 30-19 start and a five-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East.

Judge has also thrived despite losing protection in the batting order when outfielder Juan Soto signed as a free agent with the New York Mets in the offseason for a record $765 million over 15 years.

“I always say I’m running out of superlatives to describe him,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But I really am because he’s playing a different game than everyone else. It’s hard to describe.”

Aaron Judge Handles The Spotlight

What stands out as much about Judge as his hitting ability is how he handles playing in the spotlight of New York, the largest media market in the country. Judge has never been involved in any scandals or controversy, his reputation as clean as that of his predecessor as team captain, Derek Jeter.

“There are many reasons,” Judge said when asked what keeps his grounded. “Coaches. Family. Teammates. I just kind of watched the guys in front of me when I’d go to big league camp during spring training when I was younger.

“I was around a lot of great players and guys who played in this market for a long time and were success. So, it was really watching them and wanting to emulate them.”

Signed to a nine-year, $360-million contract that runs through the 2031 season, a case can be made that Judge is entering legend territory for a franchise that has won 27 World Series.

Poor October Performance Fueling Judge

However, Judge hasn’t won a championship and struggled in his first World Series appearance last fall when the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Yankees in five games.

Judge was just 4 for 18 in the World Series and 9 for 49 overall in the postseason. That poor performance stayed with Judge throughout the winter.

“It left a very bad taste in my mouth, and I wanted to be sure that I was prepared right from the start of the season,” Judge said. “Last October was definitely a motivator for me.”

Boone, though, thinks the biggest separator for Judge is his passion for baseball.

“He loves, just loves the game,” Boone said of Aaron Judge. “There are people who can get by on talent — and he certainly could get by on talent — but I think to be truly great you’ve got to fall in love with the game. He really loves the game, and it shows every single day.”