When other teams tell Aaron Judge to take a walk, will Yankees make them pay?
Aaron Judge of the Yankees jogs to first base after he was intentionally walked during the fifth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Barry Bonds treatment. It’s all that comes to mind when you see what happened to Aaron Judge during the last two days at Yankee Stadium.
And the Yankees had better figure out a way to handle it.
Once on Saturday and three times on Sunday, Blue Jays manager John Schneider ordered an intentional walk with Judge at the plate. The strategy worked all four times.
The Yankees won both games. On Sunday, it was 4-3 in 10 innings on DJ LeMahieu’s walk-off single to center against a five-man infield.
But the Blue Jays are a ragtag team. The stakes will only get higher down the stretch and in the Yankees’ probable postseason.
In 44 postseason games, Judge has never been intentionally walked. Not once. Expect that to change this October.
On Saturday, it was with two outs and no one on and the Yankees leading by three runs in the second inning. Judge had demolished a two-run homer in the first.
"I honestly didn't feel like seeing him swing,” Schneider said on Saturday. “That was kind of it.”
On Sunday, the first time was with two outs and a man on first and the Blue Jays leading 2-0 in the fifth.
Schneider put the tying run on base rather than have his pitcher — lefthander Brendon Little, who had just walked Juan Soto — pitch to Judge.
The second time on Sunday was just after Soto led off the seventh with a tiebreaking home run into the Blue Jays' bullpen off lefthander Genesis Cabrera.
With the Yankees leading 3-2, Judge certainly did not expect to be intentionally walked. But as he dug into the batter’s box to take his rips, plate umpire Tripp Gibson told Judge, “Take yer base,” or some version of that.
The crowd booed.
The third time was a no-brainer: The score was 3-3 in the eighth and runners were on second and third with two outs. The crowd — what was left of the crowd after a 1:49 rain delay — again booed. But Austin Wells skied to right to end the inning.
Which means the Yankees might start seeing a lot more of the umpire holding up four fingers and Judge jogging to first.
And this is why down the stretch and into October, whoever bats behind Judge might end up being the MIY (Most Important Yankee).
If no one steps up to protect Judge, Aaron Boone should consider flip-flopping Judge and Soto in the order. Or stacking the top of the lineup with Judge leading off and Soto second.
There is no hitter in baseball right now who is Judge’s equal. But Soto is a force, one whom managers will think twice about ticking off by intentionally walking Judge.
“It sucks,” Soto said of the intentional walks. “Just because you want him at the plate. I’m doing my best to get him up, and to see them pass him over, it makes me mad. I don’t like that. I want them to challenge him and see what he can really do. But it’s part of the game. They’re trying to win, too, so you respect that.”
The Yankees have to act because the prospect of intentionally walking Judge to get to Wells — even though Wells came through twice this weekend — isn’t scaring anyone.
Having to face Soto after giving Judge first base might at least slow down the strategy, which some would call savvy and others would call chicken.
But isn’t it better to be a live chicken than a dead duck?
"It's strategic," Gerrit Cole said. "I love watching him hit, so I wish they wouldn't do it."
Will other teams do it? Probably.
Judge was walked seven times in a three-game series against Baltimore from July 12-14 — including four times on July 12 — although none of those walks was intentional. The Mets walked him four times, once intentionally, on July 23.
"I feel way better equipped from a lineup standpoint now to handle that and deal with that and make it hurt," Boone said. "So we'll take the baserunners and take our chances."
Here’s how Schneider’s strategy worked out the first three times:
On Saturday, Wells singled, but Gleyber Torres struck out to end the inning in the Yankees’ eventual 8-3 victory.
"Wells came up with the big hit, so hopefully it doesn't happen again," Judge said Saturday. "We'll see."
We saw.
In the fifth inning on Sunday, Wells followed the intentional walk to Judge with a walk to load the bases for Giancarlo Stanton. Schneider brought in righthander Zach Pop, who struck out Stanton on four pitches to end the inning.
In the seventh, three out of four Yankees batters made outs after Judge was walked (Jazz Chisholm Jr. drew a traditional walk with two outs).
After going 1-for-2 on Sunday, Judge is batting .322 with 41 homers, 103 RBIs and a 1.157 OPS. He had been intentionally walked seven times before Saturday.
His career high is 19 intentional walks in 2022, the year he broke the American League home run record with 62 and won the AL MVP award.
No Yankees batter had received three intentional walks in a game since Bernie Williams against Tampa Bay in September 1999.
A chemically aided Bonds set an IBB standard that is so otherworldly that you still do a double-take when you see it. In 2004, Bonds was intentionally walked 120 times. Over his career, the number is a staggering 688.
During the 2002 postseason, Bonds was intentionally walked 13 times as the Giants made it to Game 7 of the World Series before losing to the Angels.
The Yankees can only hope they have a deep enough postseason run so that opposing managers have to wrestle with whether and how often to intentionally walk Judge. And that whoever bats behind Judge makes those managers pay.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
