Aaron Judge's record-breaking start makes him toughest out in game

Toward the end of May 2024, with Aaron Judge in the midst of one of those historic months that long ago became typical of his career, a rival American League coach spoke about game-planning for the Yankees slugger when he’s in an especially hot stretch.

“Honestly, when he’s going like this,” the coach said by phone, “you’re really just hoping he gets himself out.”

The coach added with a laugh: “Pretty sound strategy, right?”

Judge had otherworldly numbers last season in winning his second AL MVP award, hitting .322 with 58 home runs, 144 RBIs and a 1.159 OPS. All of those numbers achieved in 2024 after having a .197 batting average as late as May 2.

Judge hit 14 homers that May in winning AL Player of the Month honors, the jumping-off point in putting a rough start behind him for the rest of 2024.

There have been, of course, no rough patches now 2 ½ months into Judge’s 2025 season. The rival coach’s answer from last May to game-planning for the outfielder has never been more apropos.

Judge, after hitting two home runs in Sunday night’s loss to the Red Sox, will carry a .396 average, 23 homers and 55 RBIs into Kansas City on Tuesday after Monday's off-day. Judge entered Monday leading the majors in, among other categories, batting average, hits (95), on-base percentage (.493), slugging (.771), on-base plus slugging (1.264) and total bases (185).

According to USA Today, Judge is the only player in modern-era baseball, which dates to 1901, to have this many homers with so high a batting average in his team’s first 64 games. According to baseball researcher Sarah Langs, Rogers Hornsby in 1925 had the highest batting average (.425) with 20 or more homers in his team’s first 64 games (Hornsby was at 21 homers).

Next on the list is Chuck Klein, who in 1930 had 20 homers with a .405 batting average.

Next on the list (which has just six members)?

Judge, with his 23 homers and a .396 batting average.

And it is Judge’s batting average that has, among those inside the game, created the most buzz about his hot start. 

One NL scout assigned to the Yankees’ system for the last decade, who has had Judge since his days in the minor leagues, laughed when told of the coach’s hope-he-gets-himself-out comments regarding the two-time MVP.

“And the problem now,” the scout said, “is there’s really no holes in his swing. Not that there were last year but the thing with him is he’s just gotten incrementally better as a hitter year after year. And you’ve seen that from him since the minors. He knows who he is as a hitter. He really understands what gets him out and [adjusts].”

The scout continued: “Nobody in baseball stays behind the ball better than Aaron Judge. There’s no leaking, there’s no sliding, there’s no head movement at the point of contact. And that’s something that’s gotten better with him, too, going back to [the minors] . . . When you combine his physical strength with his ability to stay behind the ball, it’s no wonder he’s the best hitter in baseball.”

For Judge, having a high batting average is part of being the best hitter. Though generally steering clear of enunciating individual goals, Judge throughout his career has talked about the importance of a high batting average as it is indicative, to him, as being “a complete hitter.” It is the reason why Judge, going back to his years growing up in Linden, California, admired hitters such as Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera. They not only hit for power to all fields but did so, most of the time, hitting well above .300.

Judge, who won each of the first two AL Player of the Month awards, will have the inevitable slump this year. But it hasn’t been this month. Sunday night featured his first two homers hit in June, but he's still slashing .375/.516/.708 over the first seven games of the month, with a 1.224 OPS.

“When he’s hot, there’s not much you can do about it,” Toronto righthander Chad Green, a teammate of Judge’s from 2016-22, said with a smile in late April when the Blue Jays were in town. “When he’s seeing it well, it just is what it is. He lays off good pitches, hits your bad pitches hard, hits your good pitches hard. There’s really not much you can do.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.