New York Yankees star Aaron Judge finds himself in a major battle, both on the field and in his head.
As the Bombers teeter on the brink of a World Series sweep against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Judge’s struggles at the plate have become the main focal point of October.
While baseball is a team game and there is plenty of blame to go around, Judge is shouldering the majority of it, and rightfully so.
It also doesn’t help that every single commercial and promo on FOX’s broadcast seems to feature Judge front and center as if he’s Babe Ruth.
Judge is a great player and an even better person.
Unlike some superstars, Judge has never taken a misstep. Despite the spotlight always being on him, he has never said or done the wrong thing.
In that respect, he’s made for a perfect captain.
However, captain’s need to produce in the playoffs. Ask Derek Jeter. Ask Tom Brady. Ask anyone. This is just reality.
Unfortunately for Judge, he has fallen into one of the worst slumps of his professional career, and it has come at the absolute worst possible time.
Yankees fans have waited 15 years to return to the World Series, and despite facing an easy path to the Fall Classic, there was real hope that this was going to be the year that Judge and the Bombers finally break their long title drought.
While manager Aaron Boone has been a problem, as has sloppy defense and base running, Judge has been the most glaring weakness on the team.
He’s 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the World Series. Overall, he’s 6-for-43 with a .580 OPS and 20 strikeouts in the entire postseason.
As concerning as anything is just how lost he looks at the plate. The number of pure swings-and-misses has been frightening. He’s not seeing the ball at all.
Simply put, he’s an absolute fish out of water and he’s single-handedly killing the Yankees.
“Yeah, definitely,” Judge said when asked if he feels he’s letting the team down. “You want to be getting the hits. You want to be going out there doing your job. But I’m not doing my job right now. So I got to pick it up.”
You love the accountability. But you love actual results more. And Judge is running out of time to produce results.
A lot of fans were angered that Judge had a semi-smirk on his face when speaking to reporters after Game 3 last night. In fairness, I think that was a nervous smirk born out of pure embarrassment.
To his credit, Judge faced the music and answered all questions.
He knows that coming back from 0-3 down in the World Series is seen as virtually impossible. But he also knows you have to start somewhere – and that somewhere is Game 4 tonight.
“All it takes is one,” Judge said. “All it takes is one swing, one at-bat, one play, and everything changes. That’s the mindset you got to have.”
Judge is an absolute lock to win his second MVP Award. His 2024 regular season was nothing short of spectacular. In many ways, it was borderline historic.
However, we’ve now entered unforgiving territory with Judge. While he helps his cause since he’s so likable, the fact of the matter is his regular season numbers don’t mean anything anymore.
It’s all about what he does in the playoffs. And it will always be that way going forward with him.
It all starts tonight with Game 4. First pitch is set for 8:08pm EST. If Judge and the Yankees have a magical run left in them, it’ll have to start tonight in the Bronx.
Do you think Judge will finally wake up and help turn the tide in the series? … Or is this baby over???
