Aaron Judge may be coming off one of his coldest stretches as a pro, but his performance this past weekend brought him to historic new heights.
The New York Yankees outfielder went 5-for-13 with a double, two home runs, six RBI, three walks and a stolen base in his team's four-game series against the Boston Red Sox. That came off the back of a 16-game home run drought, during which he hit just .207. Still, Judge is batting .321 and leads all of MLB with 53 home runs, 132 RBI, 122 walks, a .455 on-base percentage, a .692 slugging percentage, an 1.147 OPS and 364 total bases on the season. Baseball Reference has his WAR at 9.7, while FanGraphs' model gives him a 10.0 through 148 games.For one, Judge's 2024 campaign is one of just 10 individual 10.0-fWAR seasons by a batter in the Wild Card era, which dates back to 1994.
Judge, having already posted an 11.1 fWAR in 2022, is the first player with multiple 10.0-fWAR seasons in a three-year span since Mike Trout made it there in 2012 and 2013. He is the first Yankees player to have two such seasons in a three-year span in nearly seven decades.Each of those stats are a feather in Judge's cap as he tries to win AL MVP for the second time in three years. His closest competitor is likely Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who has an 8.9 bWAR and a 9.
Judge and the Yankees have Monday off, but will hit the road for a series against the Seattle Mariners starting Tuesday. First pitch for the opener is scheduled for 9:40 p.m. ET.Sam Connon is a Staff Writer for Fastball on the Sports Illustrated/FanNation networks.