New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has carried his team the whole season.
He is currently on a historic home run pace that could result in a single-season dingers record for the franchise.
At the moment, the powerful outfielder has 37 home runs, and comfortably leads the league in the category.
Rather than competing with the rest of the league, Judge has a competition with some of the Yankees’ top all-time sluggers.
“Yankees Most HR Before August: Babe Ruth 41 (1928); Roger Maris 40 (1961); Mickey Mantle 39 (1961); Babe Ruth 38 (1921); Aaron Judge 37 (2022); Babe Ruth 37 (1920),” MLB statistician Katie Sharp tweeted.
Yankees Most HR Before August:
Babe Ruth 41 (1928)
Roger Maris 40 (1961)
Mickey Mantle 39 (1961)
Babe Ruth 38 (1921)
Aaron Judge 37 (2022)
Babe Ruth 37 (1920)— Katie Sharp (@ktsharp) July 24, 2022
As you can see, Judge is just four homers off the pace that Maris set in 1961, when he hit his franchise-leading 61 long balls.
He Has Some Time To Make History
Judge still has two full months, roughly a week of July, and a handful of October games to reach or surpass Maris.
Imagine the kind of contract he will earn if he can hit 61 homers or more.
It’s been a while since an MLB player has reached the 60-homer plateau, since the steroids era to be exact.
The slugger is, once again, on a hot streak, and his overall season line has gone up to .294/.376/.650 with the aforementioned 37 blasts, 80 runs, 81 RBI, and even nine stolen bases.
Those are MVP-caliber numbers, and he is among the leaders of the race for the award.
As long as Shohei Ohtani keeps excelling at both hitting and pitching, Judge will have to break some records to be considered for the MVP award.
So far, however, he is very much in contention, both for the single-season homer record in the Yankees organization and for the prestigious MVP in the American League.
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