Yankees slugger Aaron Judge named All-Star Game starter, Player of the Month for June
Yankees centerfiielder Aaron Judge runs in from the outfield during the third inning against the Reds in an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The two pieces of news could not have been less surprising.
Late Wednesday morning Aaron Judge was named the American League Player of the Month for June, making it back-to-back months in which he won the award.
Then, shortly after the Yankees and Reds started at the Stadium, came the announcement Judge will start in centerfield for this month’s All-Star Game in Arlington, Texas (Juan Soto, going along with the no-surprise-there theme, will start in right).
The AL Triple Crown leader going into Wednesday, Judge was hitting .321 with an MLB-leading 32 homers and 83 RBIs in 85 games, to go along with a 1.158 OPS. He notched his eighth career Player of the Month honor and sixth All-Star bid.
Judge hit .409 with a 1.378 OPS, 11 homers and 37 RBIs in 25 games in June, piggybacking that on a May in which he hit .361 with a 1.397 OPS, 14 homers and 27 RBIs in 28 games.
Judge’s 37 RBIs in June matched the most by a Yankee in a single calendar month since 1940; joining Bill Skowron (37 in July 1956) and Don Mattingly (37 in September 1985). The last Yankee to record more was Joe DiMaggio, who had 53 RBIs in August 1939.
“What he’s doing is … you know, I don’t know,” Aaron Boone said Tuesday after watching Judge going 3-for-4, which included homer No. 32, in a 5-4 loss to the Reds. “I’m going to get into the thesaurus because I’ve used all the other words I can think of.”
Former Met J.D. Davis, who recently only recently joined the Yankees and who, when he’s been in the lineup, has had the opportunity to hit behind Judge, said there’s a benefit to watching the centerfielder’s approach.
“It’s a good cue to sit there on deck and watch Judge and how calm he is and how in control of his body (he is),” Davis told Newsday’s David Lennon Wednesday. “You kind of want to emulate his tempo, his quietness. It’s a great example just to see something click in your brain to go up and try to do the exact same thing.”
Of Judge’s season overall, Davis dipped into the familiar when it comes to adjectives used, inside and outside the clubhouse.
“It’s pretty incredible,” the 31-year-old Davis said. “It’s not only good for New York, it’s not only good for the Yankees, it’s great for baseball to have a player like him, a humble guy like him, having (a) season like he’s (having).”
A season that, at the moment, is on pace to surpass his 2022 MVP season.
Through 85 games of that year, Judge was hitting .279 with a .958 OPS, 30 homers and 65 RBIs. He had a .358 on-base percentage and was slugging .601 at this point of 2022; those numbers are .440 and .718, respectively, through 85 games, entering Wednesday night, this season.
Judge came into Wednesday leading the majors in homers, RBIs, batting average, OBP, slugging, OPS, extra-base hits (56), times on base (164), total bases (219), go-ahead RBIs (21) and game-winning RBIs (15).
After initially pushing back on the premise of a is-he-better-than-in-2022 question before Wednesday’s game, Boone started to talk himself into it.
“Maybe he’s benefitting from another level of experience and really in-tune with what exactly he needs to do every day to go out there and be really successful,” Boone said. “The kind of run he’s been on, the extended run he’s been on, the length of that run at this level of production, maybe is a notch above (2022). I don’t know. I just know it’s a lot of fun to witness.”
Judge’s batting average dipped to .197 and his OPS to 725 after going 0-for-2 in a loss at Baltimore May 2. In 52 games since, Judge is slashing .404/.511/.934 with 26 homers, 65 RBIs and a 1.446 OPS.
“I know he is always working on being the best and being better and never being satisfied, while also having that really good perspective of understanding how hard this game is and that there’s going to be peaks and valleys, there’s going to struggles, there’s going to be weeks where you don’t swing it great,” Boone said. “It’s why you saw him handle all the questions in April (when) he was off to a slow start. He doesn’t even flinch at all. He’s real confident, he knows it’s hard, too, and that you’re going to take your lumps at times. I guess he’s just a more complete, mature product. Is it a tick better? Maybe.”