Yankees prospect Aaron Judge puts on powerful show
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge walks to the batting cage during a spring training baseball workout Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, in Tampa, Fla. Credit: AP / Chris O’Meara
TAMPA, Fla. — Before taking some questions from reporters early Friday afternoon, Brian McCann had one of his own.
“See the balls he hit today?’’ the catcher said, shaking his head.
The “he” was Aaron Judge, a top Yankees outfield prospect who could crack the big leagues and make an impact this year, much as Luis Severino and Greg Bird did last season.
There will be time for that discussion, of course, as spring training and the regular season progress. The 23-year-old is all but certain to start in Triple-A with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but Friday was about the 6-7, 275-pound Judge’s batting-practice display.
He hit several long homers, including one that cleared the towering scoreboard in left-center (approximately 40 feet high).
“I didn’t see them,” Alex Rodriguez said. “But I heard of them.”
He continued: “Everyone’s been talking about them. It’s exciting. When you see a kid like that hit a ball over the scoreboard, that’s pretty special.”
Joe Girardi had a front-row seat, along with several members of the baseball operations staff.
“There aren’t a lot of guys that can do that,” Girardi said. “We’ve talked about what a great athlete he is and [we’re] obviously trying to get him the reps to where he can be a real effective player here. It’s nice to see that type of power because not everybody has it.”
For his part, Judge refused to engage in the hype. “Wind was blowing out,” he said with a smile.
Did he see the ball clear the scoreboard? “I usually don’t watch them,” he said.
Judge, the Yankees’ first-round pick (32nd overall) in the 2013 draft, had a .284/.350/.516 slash line, 12 homers and 44 RBIs in 250 at-bats and 63 games with Double-A Trenton last season before being promoted to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He struggled at the Triple-A level, producing a .224/.308/.373 slash line, eight homers and 28 RBIs in 228 at-bats and 61 games.
“He had a great year last year,” vice president of player development Gary Denbo said recently. “He got into Triple-A where he ran into some veteran-type pitching for the first time in his career and guys pitched him [differently].”
Denbo said Judge worked with assistant hitting coach Marcus Thames and James Rowson, the club’s minor-league hitting coordinator, during the offseason.
“He’s made some adjustments that should allow him to get in position to recognize pitches better,” Denbo said. “Recognize the spin on pitches and know which pitches to attack and which pitches to take.”
Judge, now in his second big-league camp, is leaving the projections of when or if he makes the majors this year to others. He allowed that “I’m a little more comfortable” in this year’s camp compared to last year’s.
“I’m just going in there trying to have some fun and work on some stuff,” he said.
McCann, however, is more than happy to bang the drum, and not just for Judge, whose character he called “top of the line.”
“You look around here, you look at the young guys, there’s some impact baseball players that are about to hit the big leagues,” McCann said. “And it’s how you win these days. You mix veterans with your farm system, and I feel like our farm system is producing impactful players at the big-league level.”
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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