A deeper look at the Yankees captain’s season

NEW YORK – Every power hit by Yankees captain Aaron Judge seems to come with its own baseball history lesson.

Extending MLB lead with 32-run Tuesday night^and With his season-high home run, Judge became just the third player in franchise history to hit at least 26 home runs in 50 games.

The other two were Babe Ruth and Roger Maris.

“What he’s doing … I need to get a thesaurus because I’ve used every other adjective I can think of,” manager Aaron Boone said hours before Judge was named the AL Player of the Month for June.

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Overall, Judge had a .409 average in 25 games played in June, hit 11 home runs, had 37 RBIs and had an OPS of 1.378.

Judge, of course, won the same award in May, becoming the only Yankees player to do so since Don Mattingly’s MVP season in 1985.

Heading into his second AL MVP season without the drama of a contract year, Judge is poised to break his AL record of 62 home runs in 2022.

And this leads to further comparisons between then and now.

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“Is he really that much better? Maybe,” Boone said.

“Maybe he’s tapping into a different level of experience and really knowing what he needs to do every day to be truly successful,” Boone said. I know it’s a lot of fun.

Comparing Aaron Judge’s 2022 and 2024 seasons so far

When it comes to numbers…

Rate his first 85 games of 2022.

Batting average: .279

OPS: .959

Doubles: 14

Threes: 0

Home Runes: 30

RBI: 65

Walks: 42

Rate his first 85 games in 2024.

Batting average: .321

OPS: 1.158

Double: 23

Threes: 1

Home Runes: 32

RBI: 83

Walks: 61

Having witnessed this first-hand, in his first major season, one can gain an even greater understanding of Judge’s incredible body of work.

“It’s funny, I’ve watched him on TV forever and to be on the same team as him and on the same pitch as him is really cool,” said rookie Ben Rice.

“To actually be able to see what he’s doing now is something special.”

“Of course, you know about the power, but he’s a hitter. He’s got the tool to hit,” Rice said. “He knows what he wants to do at the plate, he always has a plan.”

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Aaron Judge has another season in the history books

Compare Judge to league averages, in a season with historically low offensive stats, and his numbers are even more impressive.

Through Tuesday, AL players were hitting .242 on average and with an OPS of .705; Judge has a .321 average and an OPS of 1.158, putting him among the Triple Crown contenders.

According to The Athletic, in a year that MLB is on track to have its lowest number of hits per game since 1968, it’s being dubbed the Year of the Pitcher.

After that season, the mound height was lowered from 15 inches to its current 10 inches to encourage more hits and runs (the 1969 expansion also contributed to this).

Of course, Judge has focused on the team’s goals in his public comments, and the Yankees — who have lost 11 of their last 15 games — were one game behind the AL East-leading Baltimore Orioles before Wednesday.

Judge’s streak began on the morning of May 3, when he woke up with a .197 batting average and an OPS of .725.

“It’s great … but it’s not something I’m really focused on,” Judge said recently of his rising home run numbers and how they compare to 2022. “We’ve got a season ahead of us, a lot of games ahead of us,”

At a time when hitting in baseball is harder than at any point in the past 56 years, Judge entered Wednesday as the MLB leader in home runs, RBIs, on-base percentage, slugging average and leadoff RBIs.

“Seeing his growth and evolution as a professional baseball player … I know he’s always working to be the best,” Boone said. “(And) he’s never really satisfied.”