There is no question that Aaron Judge's greatness is something to marvel at. Judge has somehow improved upon his historic 2022 campaign, and the New York Yankees have fed upon his torrid stretch at the plate to reclaim the AL East division lead. However, talking heads such as Stephen A. Smith, in the name of entertainment, for some reason have to debate on ESPN's First Take who between Judge and Shohei Ohtani is having the better season.
Smith decided not to give Judge full credit for what he's doing at the plate for the Yankees this season. He argued that part of why the hulking 6'5″ slugger is this productive is because Juan Soto is batting behind him, thereby giving him protection at the plate. However, this raised the eyebrows of Judge's Yankees teammate, Jazz Chisholm Jr. Chisholm doesn't believe that this should be a talking point, especially when Ohtani has the likes of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman batting after him.
“Ohtani also has 2 mvps behind him so that’s irrelevant sir!! @stephenasmith,” Chisholm wrote on his official account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Indeed, it's not such a mind-boggling concept in professional team sports that an individual is able to perform better when surrounded by great talents in their own right. It may be true that Juan Soto's presence is beneficial to Aaron Judge and has helped boost his production, but that should not be a demerit towards the Yankees center fielder. After all, he still has to punish the pitches thrown at him, which he does on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, Ohtani, despite being flanked by the two former MVPs in Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, is having a less productive year at the plate than in 2023. His wRC+ is down by eight points, although he makes up for this bit of drop-off in the hitting department by being a demon on the basepaths. There is an argument to be made regarding just how negligible lineup protection plays into how productive an individual batter is.
At the end of the day, these sorts of debates are meaningless fodder meant to fill the air. Based on statistics and overall production from the plate, however, it's quite obvious that Aaron Judge has had the better season than Shohei Ohtani, and this is reflected in the Yankees star's WAR total (an MLB-leading 9.8, per Fangraphs) that is around 3+ points better than the Dodgers slugger's (6.4).
Aaron Judge is making history yet again for the Yankees
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Aaron Judge turned plenty of heads when he went on his historic home run-hitting binge back in 2022, when he hit 62 long balls and broke Roger Maris' longstanding AL home run record. But the Yankees star, despite being 32 years of age, has somehow taken his game up a notch. His strikeout rate is the lowest it has been for his career (23.4 percent), and he is getting on base nearly half of the time (.467 OBP). That is phenomenal, and nothing should ever be used to discredit what he is doing this season.
Regardless, Judge knows that making history is not the end goal of his 2024 season. While it will be the cherry on top to break his AL home run record just two seasons after climbing the top of the mountain, he acknowledged the fact that the Yankees' mission is to win a World Series title. And if he continues to rake, then that goal may not be too far off from becoming a reality.
