Aaron Judge will attempt to improve upon an almost unprecedented 2024 season.
And still, no matter what he does during the upcoming regular season, it will be mostly put aside if the Yankees make the playoffs, as the baseball world will wait to see how Judge does in October.
Because when it comes to last year, two things stand out: Judge’s otherworldly performance during the regular season, in which he mostly put up the best numbers of his career, and then an ugly postseason, when Judge was mostly a mess at the plate.
Judge is well aware of that second fact.
“I’ve got to improve, definitely,” Judge said this week at Steinbrenner Field. “Last postseason wasn’t the best. I know ’22 wasn’t that great, either. I don’t want to think about the negatives, but it’s part of it. It’s the role I’m in. When you’re at the top, that’s what happens. I’ve got to improve. I’ve got to get better and I’ve got some ideas. We’ll see how it goes.”
Aaron Judge is pictured during a spring training game for the Yankees on Feb. 26.
Asked to expand on those ideas, Judge declined, but he’s already talked about what he’s doing this spring to avoid another slow start to the regular season.
Judge expects to take more at-bats in spring training games in an effort to be in top form beginning on Opening Day.
But it’s unclear how he’ll be able to change his routine in the regular season.
Aaron Judge runs to catch a fly ball before the Yankees’ spring training game against the Cardinals on Feb. 26.
He stayed healthy last year, and if a 158-game workload took a toll on the 6-foot-7 Judge, it didn’t show late in the regular season, when he was just as dangerous at the plate as he was throughout much of the rest of the year.
His struggles in October don’t just date back to last year or — as Judge noted, 2022 — but really to 2018, when he stopped hitting after slamming a homer in three straight games.
Since Game 3 of the ALDS against the Red Sox, Judge has played 42 playoff games and put up a .657 OPS with nine homers, just a pair of doubles, 25 walks and 57 strikeouts in 191 plate appearances.
Aaron Judge is pictured during a batting workout on Feb. 25.
And last year, the Yankees reached the World Series largely on the back of Juan Soto, who led the Yankees with an OPS of 1.102, and Giancarlo Stanton’s team-high seven homers.
Judge’s disappointment lies more in that the Yankees fell short to the Dodgers in five games than his own stats.
“It’s more that we didn’t get the job done,’’ Judge said. “I’ve had good postseasons and we didn’t get out of the [division series]. So what’s there to talk about there? You might have one good game and then you’re sitting at home. All that matters is the team winning.’’
And like the rest of the Yankees, he’s still waiting for his first title — and it doesn’t matter how they fall short.
“It’s just like every other season, whether you don’t make the postseason or lose in the World Series,” Judge said. “It sits with you and you have to deal with it. But you can’t dwell on it.”
You can think about it, though, and it is something that remains on Judge’s mind.
“When I signed here again [as a free agent], it was about winning a championship, multiple championships,’’ Judge said. “The money and all that’s great, but I want to win and I’ve got to do more to make sure that happens.”
And he reiterated his plan for making sure he’s a part of that: “I’ve got some ideas.”
