Despite a recent rough patch, everything is going well in the New York Yankees universe.
The team still has the best record in MLB, at 29-13, half a game better than the 28-13 Los Angeles Dodgers.
And Aaron Judge is having the best year of his career so far.
The slugger is hitting .325/.398/.715 with an MLB-best 17 home runs so far in 40 games.
17 home runs and May still has a week before it’s over: that’s some amazing pace right there.
In fact, you wouldn’t believe how many home runs Judge is currently projecting.
“Update: Aaron Judge is now on pace for 66 homers,” New York Post’s writer Joel Sherman tweeted after his two-homer game on Monday against the Baltimore Orioles.
Update: Aaron Judge is now on pace for 66 homers.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) May 24, 2022
He Is Well On His Way To Establish A Career-High In Homers
Judge’s career-best in round-trippers is 52, which was an amazing feat given he was a rookie at the time.
It happened in 2017.
He had a couple of injury-riddled years, then had a fantastic 2021 in which he homered 39 times.
Amazingly, he is almost halfway that mark, and we haven’t even completed two months of the year.
If he is healthy, Judge will probably shatter that 52 homers mark and establish a new career-high.
Asking him to hit 66 homers in a year in which the ball is not traveling as it usually does (and in a different era) may be a stretch, but he could conceivably hit at least 53.
He has all the motivation in the world, as he recently rejected a $213 million contract offer that would have paid him $30.5 million per year.
He will test free agency, and he will have to put up some impressive numbers to receive the kind of contract he wants.
So far, he is well on his way to becoming a very rich man.
NEXT: Gerrit Cole Is Already Shattering Yankees Pitching History