All 30 MLB teams have played at least 10% of their regular season and New York Yankees two-time MVP outfielder Aaron Judge is off to arguably the best start of his career.
The 32-year-old led the Yankees to a 4-3 win against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night, finishing the contest 3-for-3 with a double, home run and two runs scored. With the game knotted at three in the bottom of the seventh inning, Judge provided the game-winning solo shot, giving him seven dingers for the season.
As noted by YES Network Sports Researcher and Booth Statistician James Smyth, the six-time All-Star’s monster beginning to the 2025 campaign has put him in historic company.
Smyth posted on Bluesky that with his .409 batting average and seven home runs, Judge has joined Hall-of-Famer Mickey Mantle and 14-time All-Star Alex Rodriguez as the only players in franchise history to have an average of at least .400 and at least seven long balls through the team’s first 18 games. Mantle was hitting .424 and had collected nine home runs through 18 contests during his first AL MVP season in 1956, while A-Rod batted an even .400 with a whopping 14 dingers across New York’s first 18 tilts in his third and final MVP campaign in 2007.
Even more remarkably, Judge’s feat puts him ahead of legends Babe Ruth (.397 AVG, nine HR in 1921) and Lou Gehrig (.388 AVG, seven HR in 1929) during their respective red-hot starts in the 1920s.
Judge is Early Runaway Frontrunner For Third AL MVP in 4 Years
Thanks largely in part to the “current incarnation of the MVP award” not coming into play until 1931, Ruth only earned the hardware once in his Hall-of-Fame career and Gehrig took home the honor twice.
Mantle and Rodriguez, meanwhile, both won three AL MVPs. If Judge keeps his current pace, he has a great chance to match Rodriguez and “The Mick.”
Entering play on Thursday, “The Judge” leads MLB in batting average, on-base percentage (.519), slugging percentage (.803), OPS (1.322), total bases (53) and Wins Above Replacement (WAR) at 1.6. Judge also paces the junior circuit in runs scored (20), hits (27) and RBI (21).
Barring injury, the 2013 first-round pick should be considered the significant favorite to win his third AL MVP this year.
After finishing his 2017 AL Rookie of the Year campaign as the league’s MVP runner-up as well, Judge had another big season in 2021 to finish fourth in the award’s voting. Judge broke through in 2022, racking up an AL-record 62 home runs on his way to his first MVP honor, and if not for a toe injury that caused him to miss 42 games in 2023, he may have won the award that year too.
He bounced back last season by nearly winning the Triple Crown, finishing with an AL-best 58 home runs and 144 RBI (on top of a .322 batting average) to win his second MVP.
Judge’s Red-Hot Stretch Comes After Ice-Cold Start to 2024
While many fans argue that Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani takes the title as MLB’s best player, there’s little question that Judge is the best in the AL, particularly in the last 12 months.
Judge, curiously, got off to a brutal start during the 2024 season, hitting just .207 through March and April last year. In fact, one year ago Thursday, Judge entered a Wednesday night game against the Toronto Blue Jays with just three home runs, nine RBI and a .182/.337/.394 slash line across the Yankees’ first 18 contests.
What a difference a year makes.
Aaron Judge Matches Babe Ruth, Other Yankees Hall-of-Famers Amid Historic Start