Yankees' Aaron Judge ready to build off historic season
TAMPA, Fla. — Aaron Judge spent hardly any time at all luxuriating in the accomplishments of last season.
Judge is coming off a historic 2022, a year in which he hit an American League-record 62 homers — breaking Roger Maris’ mark of 61 set in 1961 — en route to capturing American League MVP honors in a landslide.
But for Judge, who batted .311 and led the majors with 131 RBIs (tied with the Mets’ Pete Alonso), a .425 on-base percentage, a .696 slugging percentage and a 1.111 OPS, the achievements from one of the best offensive seasons in MLB history stayed in his mind only briefly.
“I think a day or two,” said Judge, whom the Yankees, after more than a few nervous moments for the franchise, brought back on a record nine-year, $360 million free-agent contract in early December. “You kind of soak it in. For me, when I was reviewing the season, reviewing my swing, stuff I need to improve on and kind of soak it in, when you look back on some of the moments that happened and [say], ‘I can’t believe that happened or that situation happened.’
“But for me, it’s easy to turn the page because by the time we got kicked out of the postseason, there’s teams that are already a couple of weeks into their offseason and have already turned the page and already made improvements. So I can’t sit back and say, ‘I did X, Y and Z.’ I have to keep moving forward. So you acknowledge it, appreciate it, but understand we still have a long way to go and there’s work to do.”
And for Judge — who coyly and with a smile didn’t outright dismiss the possibility of again making a run at 60 homers, saying “We’ll see. You never know what could happen” — all of that work was channeled toward the Yankees winning World Series title No. 28.
For Yankees fans, it has been an eternity since title No. 27 came in 2009, four years before Judge was drafted.
“A lot of unfinished business here,” said Judge, whom owner Hal Steinbrenner named the 16th team captain in club history in the late December news conference that officially announced his new deal. “That’s why we play this game. You play to win, you play to be on top. When you play in New York, that’s the one and only goal. Besides going out there and winning your division and putting yourself in a good spot for the postseason. That’s what drives me day in and day out.”
Judge, who turned down the Yankees’ seven-year, $213.5 million extension offer before last season, has come close to that goal in his time in pinstripes, but only that. Close.
The Yankees lost to the Astros in seven games in the American League Championship Series in 2017, Judge’s breakout Rookie of the Year season, and fell to the Red Sox in four games in the Division Series in 2018. A six-game ALCS loss to the Astros in 2019 and a five-game ALDS loss to the Rays in 2020 followed. Next came a flameout to the Red Sox in the 2021 AL wild-card game and last October’s four-game sweep at the hands of the Astros in the ALCS.
Judge, who will turn 31 on April 26, remembers the atmosphere in each of those losing clubhouses.
“That silence in that clubhouse after a [postseason] loss is probably the worst feeling a ballplayer can have,” he said. “You don’t know what to say, you don’t know what to do. All of a sudden you’re going from every day preparing for this game . . . to now you’re done and your offseason begins . . . it bothers me and it bothers the group as well every year that we don’t finish what we started.”
In surveying what is expected to be around him, Judge believes this roster is better than the one that fell to the Astros.
“I think you start at the top when you’ve got a guy like Carlos Rodon added to the mix and into our rotation, that plays a big part of it,” Judge said. “Pitching and defense win you ballgames down the stretch, and having a balanced lineup. And I think with a lot of the young guys we have coming up, fighting for shortstop, fighting for leftfield, there’s quite a few opportunities with [those players’] bat-to-ball skills, great defensive skills. And when you add in the rotation we have, we’re going to be in a good position moving forward.
“But we haven’t played any games yet, so we’ll see what we’ve got down the road.”
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.
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