Many pegged the New York Yankees to have a major bounce-back season in 2024 after missing the playoffs entirely last year. However, the Yankees have surpassed expectations of them and then some, at least through their first 61 games of the season. Fresh off a three-game series sweep of the San Francisco Giants that extended their winning streak to five games, the Yankees are now 42-19 on the season, good for the best record in the MLB, and they have Aaron Judge to thank primarily for the way they handled business in San Francisco.
On Sunday, it was the Yankees' top of the order that did the majority of the damage in their 7-5 win over the Giants. Judge had himself a night, tallying two hits in three at-bats to go along with two walks. And as a result of another good night at the plate, the Yankees' star center fielder made history that no other player in the existence of the MLB's winningest franchise has reached.
Finishing with three home runs, six runs batted in, three walks, and two stolen bases in the Yankees' series sweep of the Giants, Aaron Judge, according to Yankees Stats on Twitter (X), became the first-ever player in franchise history to tally those benchmarks in a single series.
Given how many great players have donned the Yankees' pinstripes throughout its history, being the first-ever to reach those numbers in a series is no mean feat. While those numbers may be a bit cherrypicked and the benchmarks a bit arbitrary, Judge can rest easy knowing that he continues to be a major catalyst for New York's stellar start to the 2024 campaign.
Tallying these numbers is already special enough as it is. For Aaron Judge, it may have meant a bit more since he was able to pull off his historic feat just a few hundred miles away from his hometown of Linden, California. But for the Giants, this performance from Judge merely twisted the knife of missing out on his services in a heated bidding war two offseasons ago.
Let's all rise for Aaron Judge's monster season
After signing a nine-year, $360 million contract with the Yankees following his epic 2022 season in which he set the record for most home runs in a single season in AL history with 62, Aaron Judge endured a bit of a down season in 2023. Not only did he sustain injuries that limited him to just 106 games, his production also dipped. He finished with 37 home runs and 75 runs batted in but finished with a relatively paltry 4.8 WAR (per Fangraphs) after his batting average dropped by 44 percentage points and his power production dipped as well.
But in 2024, Judge is back in a huge way. Through 61 games, Judge has put up 4.0 WAR — 83 percent of last year's production. He has hit 21 home runs and driven in 47 runs in just 272 plate appearances, and he's nearly raking at his 2022 MVP level, which is considerably more valuable now that he's playing a much more difficult position — center field — on a full-time basis.
Aaron Judge is also back in the middle of the order after spending the past few years higher up; this has given him more opportunities to drive in runs, and it's difficult to argue about the results, seeing as the Yankees currently own the best record in the MLB.
There may have been plenty of rocky moments in 2023, but Judge is proving that he's well worth the $40 million annual salary the Yankees are paying him by continuing to be one of, if not the best position player in the MLB.
Yankees are firing on all cylinders
The main expectation for the Yankees was that they will be a much more offense-oriented ballclub; the injury to Gerrit Cole before the 2024 season began was a great cause for concern for a New York team that didn't have too many established starting pitchers. And for the most part, the Yankees' heavy hitters have delivered. They currently rank first in the AL in runs scored with 299, although they'll be trailing other teams soon when they catch up in the number of games played.
However, it's the Yankees' arms that have been a revelation throughout the 2024 campaign. In particular, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt have been much better than advertised, and the Yankees' rotation has been five-deep as a result.
New York has allowed the fewest runs in the entire MLB, with 192, despite being tied with a few other teams for having played the most games thus far this season. They are the only team left that has allowed fewer than 200 runs, with the next-closest team, the Los Angeles Dodgers allowing 19 more than the team in pinstripes.
