PolarVortex
Nanook of the North
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The short, sweet answer is a flat out NO. And, at his age (33), he isn't going to be. He isn't going to topple the career accomplishments and multiplle great seaons of Mike Trout and Albert Pujols (and that is just for starters).Some numbers from the Athletic:
Quiet Greatness
Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Images
History — again — for Aaron Judge
Sometimes, superstars have it rough. Narratively, I mean. If a player is consistently great for a long period of time, the greatness becomes … boring. There’s no arc for us to latch onto, no adversity. See: James, LeBron.
Aaron Judge has quickly entered that territory. In 2022, he produced one of the best seasons we’ve ever seen — 62 home runs, 131 RBIs and a 210 OPS + in a contract year. After an injury-plagued 2023, he returned to that form last season (58 homers, 144 RBIs, 223 OPS+). Both seasons earned MVP awards. A standard was established.
This year? He’s even better. Let’s start at the basics and build up:
I urge you to read Jayson’s story, which is full of plenty of other mind-blowing stats. And maybe watch Judge hit soon if you get the chance. We may never see a player produce like this again.
- The surface numbers are just bonkers: a .400 average, 1.241 OPS, 249 OPS+ (which normalizes a player’s OPS in relation to the league average, which is set at 100). As in, Judge is hitting 149 percent better than a league-average player.
- Judge, 33, has produced 3.4 wins above replacement (via Fangraphs) already this season, which would’ve ranked 77th last year for the entire year. Judge led the league in WAR last year, too (11.2).
- Judge might be, as Jayson Stark illuminated Tuesday, the best right-handed hitter the modern game has ever seen. Better than Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio — at least statistically.
- To wit: Since the 2022 season began, Judge put together the best asterisk-free 450-game stretch of any right-handed hitter in the last 100 years — 168 home runs and a 207 Weighted Runs Created+, which means he manufactured runs 107 percent better than the average major leaguer. The only players with more homers in the same amount of time: Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.
Judge had great seasons in 2022 and 2024. He had a very good season in 2017, but many players have had the equivalent including Prince Fielder and Dave Kingman. In short, he has had two great years and is working on a third which he might achieve assuming he keeps up the pace and doesn't get injured.
