Aaron Judge is truly ineffable. The Yankees captain is gunning for a second 60+-plus-homer season, leading the MLB in almost every important offensive category and making highlight-reel defensive plays.
"Just running out of words with what he's doing,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said recently, per ESPN’s Jorge Castillo. “… I gotta get the thesaurus out and get to work."
Judge is worthy of every positive adjective his manager can find. But there’s one negative descriptor of Judge that will tarnish all the shiny superlatives connected to him if he can’t shake it soon: ringless.
As amazing as Judge is, he’s in danger of ending up a mere bright spot in a losing Yankees era. Despite Judge’s genius, the Bombers haven’t been able to get him into the World Series.
Even in a year when they could finish the regular season with the best record in baseball, the Yankees have too many question marks to be clear World Series favorites.
Outside of Judge and Juan Soto, the Yankees offense is spotty. Leadoff hitter Gleyber Torres is working on a subpar 92 OPS+, the lowest such tally of his career. Left fielder Alex Verdugo is having the worst year of his career, slashing just .233/.294/.362, while DJ LeMahieu and his .200 average somehow present the best option at first base.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. has provided a little spark, but he’s always likely to erase any offensive good he does with a slip-up in the field as he learns how to play third base. The midseason acquisition has made six errors in 18 games at the hot corner since joining the Bombers.
This has been changed to an error, Jazz now has five errors in his last three games https://t.co/USzL0E6PaG
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 27, 2024
The Yankees’ pitching situation is slightly better. As of Tuesday night, they held the sixth-best team ERA in the MLB (3.74). New York also has a top-10 bullpen, coming in at ninth with a 3.65 ERA.
But even if the Yankees can scratch out a few runs and carry some leads into the ninth innings of playoff games, they’ll have to rely on one of their biggest question marks — Clay Holmes — to take them home. The MLB leader in blown saves is quite literally the opposite of a sure thing.
Instead of studying his thesaurus, Boone needs to focus on filling the gaping holes on his team and getting Judge a legacy-cementing World Series ring. Otherwise, the skipper will likely see adjectives such as "canned," "cut loose" and "ousted" next to his name in the coming offseason.
