Somehow Aaron Judge Has a Better 2024 Season Than 2022: 4 Key Takeaways

NEW YORK — Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider was so tired of watching Aaron Judge swing the bat that he did something no other manager had done in 52 years. With two outs and no one on base in the second inning for the New York Yankees on Saturday, Schneider intentionally walked Judge.

“I honestly didn’t want to see him swing. That was about it,” Schneider said with a laugh. “He’s in a different category, I think, than anybody else in the league, where he can turn the script of a game around with one swing.”

Even Barry Bonds, who finished his career with 688 intentional walks, including 120 in 2004, didn’t allow an intentional walk with two outs and no one on base in the first two innings of a game.

“That goes beyond the Bonds treatment,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Now we call it the Judge treatment.”

Aaron Judge walked intentionally… with no one on base and 2 outs. 😲

That’s respect. photo.twitter.com/a3ZIYMZ2Us

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 3, 2024

It’s hard to believe that Judge will have a better season in 2024 than his historic 2022 campaign, but he will. Judge has a higher wRC+, OPS, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and walk rate and a lower strikeout rate than he did in 2022, the year he won the American League MVP after hitting 62 home runs. While Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. has exploded into superstardom this season and is Judge’s main competitor for the trophy, the MVP race isn’t particularly exciting right now because of how absurd the Yankees center fielder has been.

Here are some of the most bizarre numbers from Judge’s season so far:

A pace of 71 home runs

Judge woke up on April 27 with a .674 OPS and just four home runs. He had a .178 batting average and was constantly being asked about his slow start and whether something was wrong. The reality was that some of it was due to poor hitting. We wrote in mid-April that all of Judge’s advanced stats were encouraging; it was only a matter of time before he broke out. Judge hit a home run in Milwaukee on April 27, and another the next day.

As of April 27, Judge has 37 home runs in 84 games. If we extrapolate that over a 162-game season, Judge would be on pace for 71 home runs. Even with his poor April, Judge is still on pace for 59 home runs. Given how he has been hitting the past three months, it’s fair to wonder how many home runs Judge would have at this point.

Judge’s 41 home runs, the most in MLB, are eight more than Shohei Ohtani’s 33 and nine more than Anthony Santander’s 32. Santander has the second-most in the American League.

How is this possible?

This might be the wildest stat of them all, given his season: Despite having the best year of his career, Judge is seeing more pitches in the strike zone than ever before. His zone percentage is 49.1 percent, which is up 2.3 percentage points from 2022.

One reason pitchers have to face Judge more often than they’d like is because Juan Soto bats for him. Soto has the second-highest on-base percentage in MLB (behind Judge, of course), so many of Judge’s plate appearances come with a runner already on base.

“I think it doesn’t hurt to have greatness in front of you,” Boone said. “The fact that Juan is on base so much, and now all of a sudden the pitcher is in the stretch with a runner on base — he’s threatened more often than not. It’s an advantage to hit with runners on base. I think it’s probably an advantage that Juan sees a lot of pitches. I think that doesn’t hurt. I think Aaron does a good job of processing things when he sees the pitcher, what they have, what they’re doing. I think that helps shape his game plan a little bit. I think the greats benefit from that.”

The captain connects 💪#EverythingRise photo.twitter.com/864Hq3M6YT

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 3, 2024

The Blue Jays didn’t care about Soto getting on base in the fifth inning on Sunday. They intentionally walked Judge to confront Austin Wells, who also walked. Giancarlo Stanton then struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning. We’ll see if teams adopt the Blue Jays’ strategy and decide it’s not worth pitching to Judge, regardless of the situation.

First Inning Ability

Judge has 16 first-inning home runs this season. On Saturday, he tied Babe Ruth for the most first-inning home runs in a single season in franchise history.

“It’s surreal,” Judge said. “Every time you hear about these greats that are all around this building, all around the stadium, it’s almost like a figment of your imagination, some of the things that they’ve done. To be mentioned in any category with those guys is a huge honor.”

Even more impressive, Judge’s 16 first-inning home runs are more than the Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Guardians, Royals, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants, Washington Nationals, New York Mets and Chicago White Sox.

If Judge hits three more first-inning home runs this season, it will be the most in a single season in MLB history, surpassing Alex Rodriguez’s 18 in 2001.

The best hitter in the world

Soto ranks second in MLB wRC+ this season with 189. It is Soto’s highest career mark in a non-shortened season. But Judge is at 216 wRC+. That would be the fifth-best offensive season since 1957. Only Bonds’ 2002, 2001 and 2004 seasons and Mickey Mantle’s 1957 season rank higher.

“We see greatness,” Boone said. “You try not to take for granted what you see 99 do. I feel like for a couple of years now, when you hear a lot of Babe, Mantle, (Lou) Gehrig, (Joe) DiMaggio, those kind of names are woven into a lot of the things he does.”

(Photo: Adam Hunger/Getty Images)