Yankees' Aaron Judge goes very deep very often in a powerful session of batting practice
Yankees' Aaron Judge hits a home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the seventh inning of a baseball game Sept. 22, 2023, in New York. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
TAMPA, Fla. — Aaron Judge has been putting on shows in batting practice from the time he first put on a Yankees uniform.
That was on June 11, 2013, at Oakland Coliseum, about a week after the Yankees made Judge their first-round pick (32nd overall) in the 2013 draft.
At the cavernous Coliseum — never considered a hitter’s ballpark — Judge effortlessly swatted baseballs long distances.
“[He made] that stadium, which played really, really big, just made it look small,” Kevin Long, the Yankees' hitting coach at the time and now the Phillies' hitting coach, recalled last year.
The Yankees' minor-league complex will never be confused with any big-league ballpark, and on days like Monday, with wind gusts blowing out at a steady 15 to 20 mph, it played small for just about everyone taking BP.
That included Anthony Rizzo, DJ LeMahieu, Anthony Volpe and Oswaldo Cabrera (outfielder Alex Verdugo, among those imported to help the offense in the offseason, arrived in Tampa on Monday and also was at the complex).
Yet Judge, who hit an American League-record 62 homers in 2022 and had 37 homers in only 367 at-bats and 106 games with a 1.019 OPS in an injury-shortened 2023, stood out nonetheless.
The 6-7, 282-pound outfielder usually does.
He crushed no-doubter after no-doubter to all fields, several times clanking baseballs off the scoreboard set up beyond the fence in right (the lefthanded-hitting Rizzo sent his share off the same scoreboard).
After BP, Judge chatted a bit with managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, with whom the 2022 AL MVP made a point of building more of a personal relationship after signing a nine-year, $360 million free-agent contract in December 2022 (Steinbrenner, who often describes himself as “an introvert,” happily reciprocated, and the two spoke regularly during the 2023 season and the offseason).
On Monday — two days before Yankees pitchers and catchers officially report for spring training — Judge was part of a beehive of activity at the minor-league complex, which has been bustling for well over a month. Judge, who lives in the area, has been working out almost daily there since early January. His offseason workout schedule is very similar to that of a player he’s often compared to, Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, who also maintained a home in the Tampa area during his career.
LeMahieu, Volpe, Cabrera and Rizzo have been regulars at the complex for weeks, as have pitchers Nestor Cortes and Carlos Rodon. Marcus Stroman, signed to a two-year, $37 million free agent contract last month, has been working out here for about a week.
Heralded prospect Jasson Dominguez, who had an electric debut as a Sept. 1 call-up before suffering a UCL tear that required Tommy John surgery, also has been a regular at the complex. On Monday, Dominguez, who turned 21 last Wednesday, shagged balls during BP. He did not hit or throw, though he should be cleared to do the latter within the next two weeks.
General manager Brian Cashman, speaking during a Zoom news conference on Jan. 18 to discuss the Stroman signing, said Dominguez is expected back “sometime in the summer.” That's an intentionally vague timeline, but the Yankees privately believe the rookie has progressed well and, with no setbacks in his rehab, that it's more probable that he will return in the early part of the summer than in the later part.
As for Judge, named the 16th team captain (and first since Jeter) in franchise history in December 2022 by Steinbrenner shortly after signing his megadeal, he has never wavered since his big-league debut in 2016 about his No. 1 priority in uniform.
“You play to win, you play to be on top,” Judge said last February during his first news conference of spring training. “When you play in New York, that’s the one and only goal.”
It's a goal unreached in Judge’s career, with the nadir of that coming in 2023 when the Yankees went 82-80 and failed to make the playoffs.
“The players that were here are very hungry,” Cashman said on Jan. 18. “Got a bad taste in their mouths from last year’s experience, and nobody wants to have that experience again.”
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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