AL Home Run King, MVP, AP Male Athlete Of The Year. Let’s Recap How Good Aaron Judge’s Season Actually Was

Coming off one of the best individual seasons we’ve ever seen, it’s official that Aaron Judge is coming back to the Yankees.

After signing a 9-year, $360,000,000 contract, averaging to about $40 million a year, Judge also earned the title of 16th Captain in Yankees franchise history.

But the recognition of Judge’s historic season has not stopped there, as the National story of Judge’s home run chase continues to gain attention even months after his historic homer in Texas.

But no matter if he wins the American League MVP, the Silver Slugger, or even the AP Male Athlete of the Year, the overall season of Judge and what it represents has been a debate all year.

So, how good was Judge’s year at the plate overall?

First, let’s look at his numbers outside of the long balls.

Offensively, Judge led the league in the following:

OBP : .425

SLG : .686

OPS : 1.111 | OPS+: 211

BB: 111

TB: 391

RBI: 131

Plus, Judge was just .005 points behind the AL batting champ Luis Arraez for the best batting average, which would have given him the triple crown.

All of these statistical categories came before the leading storyline of his year: 62 homers.

But, these 62 homers came in a year of down offensive production overall, as Judge’s gap in the league lead in home runs was 22, the biggest difference since 1932.

For context, if we inflated Judge’s season to the league average of the juiced ball era (2015-2021), Judge would have hit 71, and seen a 6.7% bump to his OPS.

Even if he hit in the inflated years of the steroid era, Judge would have added 2 homers to his historic season, while also seeing an 11% inflation in walks.

So, in one of the best bet-on-yourself seasons the game has ever seen, Judge earned himself $40 million a year, and gave him a paycheck into his age 39 seasons, thus overcoming the shortfalls constantly seen by late bloomers missing out on their payday.

No matter which side of the home run record you fall, it’s difficult to not consider the regular season from #99 as one of the best in MLB history.