Aaron Judge: Building a Monument Park Resume with All-Time Stats

According to our friends at Wikipedia, there are currently 61 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame who were affiliated with the New York Yankees as a broadcaster, coach, executive or player. 24 of them were inducted as a Yankee. There’s little doubt that when Aaron Judge retires, he will join them.

Judge, 33, is signed through 2031 and still has unfinished October business before he mulls the next phase of his life. But when the time comes, he’ll get his day, he’ll get his number retired, and based on the stats we’re about to share, he’s on pace to become the 5^th player in Yankees history to get an actual monument in Yankee Stadium’s historic Monument Park.

MOVE OVER LEGENDS
Aaron Judge currently sits 7^th all-time in HRs hit by New York Yankees.

1. Babe Ruth – 659
2. Mickey Mantle – 536
3. Lou Gehrig – 493
4. Joe DiMaggio – 361
5. Yogi Berra – 358
6. Alex Rodriguez – 351
7. Aaron Judge – 333

However, if you look at HR/AB ratio, Judge rises to the second on the Yankees list:

1. Babe Ruth 10.95
2. Aaron Judge 11.30
3. Mickey Mantle 15.12

To put that in perspective, let’s now include all players, from all teams, for the duration of their career:

1. Mark McGwire 10.61
2. Aaron Judge 11.30
3. Babe Ruth 11.76
4. Barry Bonds 12.92

JUDGE VS THE NEW BAMBINO
With help from our good friend ChatGPT, let’s judge Judge by the modern game’s most respected metrics against dual-threat superstar Shohei Ohtani’s hitting statistics.

Top 5 MLB Players by Cumulative WAR since 2021:

1. Aaron Judge 32.0
2. Mookie Betts 30.5
3. Jose Ramirez 29.0
4. Shohei Ohtani 28.5
5. Freddie Freeman 27.0

Other notable New York athletes include Juan Soto (#6) at 26.5 and Paul Goldschmidt (#10) at 23.5.

Top 5 MLB Players by Cumulative OPS since 2021:

1. Aaron Judge 1.050
2. Shohei Ohtani 1.030
3. Freddie Freeman 1.000
4. Juan Soto 0.980
5. Yordan Alvarez 0.970

Paul Goldschmidt (#8) is at 0.940.

ICYMI “4 Random Thoughts About the Subway Series”

STARTING OFF WITH A BANG
Aaron Judge has a long way to go to catch Albert Pujols (154) for the most first-inning home runs, but he’s already hit 72 since 2017. For perspective: the late, great Rickey Henderson — renowned for hitting leadoff home runs — hit 82 in 2,886 career games. Judge, by comparison, has played 1045. Note: Inning-specific stats have only been tracked since 1974.

ALL-RISE
Aaron Judge was the quickest to reach 250 home runs (810 games) and the quickest to get to 300 home runs (955 games). Currently, Mark McGwire is the fastest MLB player to reach 350 home runs (1280 games). Judge needs just 17 home runs in his next 234 games to set that record too.

ICYMI “New York Yankees Must Play Jasson Dominguez Against All Righties”