Yankees' Aaron Judge chasing a Triple Crown and a championship
Yankees centerfielder Aaron Judge looks for his pitch during the first inning against the Reds in an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
So what kind of Triple Crown winner is Aaron Judge going to be? Mickey Mantle on the 1956 Yankees? Or Ted Williams on the ’47 Red Sox?
Sure it’s a bit presumptuous of us to give the award to Judge on Independence Day, but his supernatural pace now calls for higher honors than merely handing him a second MVP. And the only question could be whether Judge rolls to the AL crown or holds off Shohei Ohtani to claim the MLB prize.
But let’s get back to that Mantle-Williams debate for a minute, which increasingly seems pertinent to Judge, based on the Yankees recent slide (9-15) and tumble from first place in the AL East. Mantle helped propel those ’56 Yankees to 97 wins and a seven-game World Series victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers.
And Williams? Teddy Ballgame won the second of his two Triple Crowns in ’47, but those Red Sox won only 83 games and finished third in the AL, failing to qualify for the playoffs (Bridgehampton’s Yaz got the ’67 Impossible Dream Sox to the World Series in his Triple Crown year, but for the sake of this argument, that’s more akin to Mantle than Teddy).
Obviously, no one is suggesting Judge’s Yankees are going to be a .500 team this year. They’re going to be playing in October. But it is fair to question these days if the Yankees can muster enough firepower around Judge (and Juan Soto) to accomplish what those legendary Mantle Yankees did rather than coming up way short like Williams, whose Cooperstown brilliance never resulted in a title for Boston.
Wednesday’s 3-2 loss, a second straight to the Reds, featured more of the same misfiring offense. Even Judge, who came up with two on and one out in the seventh, smashed a bullet double-play grounder (106.8 mph) that killed the Yankees’ last rally and dropped him to .318 on the season, third place overall in the majors to put his Triple Crown aspirations temporarily on hold.
Scrolling through the Yankees’ lineup for Wednesday night’s game against the Reds, it basically went off a cliff after Judge. Losing Giancarlo Stanton took away his cleanup hitter for at least another few weeks, so with Reds lefty Andrew Abbott on the mound, Boone followed Judge with J.D. Davis, the former Met who just arrived a week ago during the Subway Series.
“To hit behind Judge, you know strategically it’s a chess game,” Davis said before Wednesday’s game. “They still throw fastballs down the middle to him — I have no idea why they do that. But when they pitch around him to get to me, it’s my job to do my part. Just have a productive at-bat, a professional at-bat.”
Davis wound up going 0-for-3, including a shattered-bat groundout that stranded two in the third inning. To be fair, as long as Soto is hitting in the No. 2 spot and Stanton is gone, there is no “protecting” Judge. Entering Wednesday, Judge was on a 58-game tear as hot as the sport has ever seen, with a slash line of .392/.500/.897, 28 homers, 70 RBIs and a 1.397 OPS during that stretch.
Those looking for comps, thanks to MLB.com research done before the COVID-shortened 2020 season, it’s not surprising that Barry Bonds is the all-time leader in home runs (37) during any 60-game span (2001) as well as on-base percentage (.613, in 2004) and slugging (1.016, in 2001). Bonds, of course, was running on PEDs in piling up those numbers, and seeing Judge’s reign of terror lately, it’s still staggering to think — all these years later — that someone was actually more dangerous.
But Judge stands alone now. And given the damage he’s done, in an otherwise toothless Yankees’ lineup, shouldn’t pitchers dodge him like they once did Bonds? After Soto and Judge, the Yankees currently have seven active players with 100-plus plate appearances, and Anthony Volpe is at the head of the class with a .694 OPS.
Then comes Jose Trevino (.693), Alex Verdugo (.687) and Gleyber Torres (.642). Former two-time batting champ DJ LeMahieu has a .490 OPS. In Wednesday’s lineup, utilityman Jahmai Jones (.783 OPS in 39 PAs) was the DH.
What’s Boone to do? There’s just not a ton of viable options right now on a roster that was hitting a combined .233 over the past 23 games with a middle-of-the-pack .714 OPS that would be in the MLB cellar if not for Judge’s otherworldly performance.
Incredibly, Judge only has six intentional walks this season. But with teams treading carefully around him, that number is due to increase rapidly. When I asked Boone if he thought Judge eventually could get the Full Bonds at this rate, he was skeptical.
“The Bonds treatment might be too extreme in today’s game,” Boone said. “But I think you’re going to see at different points of the game, if the situation calls for it . . . I’m sure it will happen a little bit.”
Boone did recall Judge being handled that way toward the end of the Roger Maris pursuit during his 2022 MVP season, also with the Yankees banged up offensively. They still won 99 games but were swept by the Astros in the ALCS. This year, Judge’s Triple Crown chase once again has October in his sights, but will it be more Mantle or Williams?
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.