MLB
Is Yankees captain Aaron Judge still in contention for the American League Triple Crown?
The star outfielder for the Bronx Bombers overcame a slow start early in the year to boost the team’s score in the middle of the MLB season.
The 2024 season feels like déjà vu, a reminiscence of times past that is intertwined with the present, at least for Aaron Judge. The captain of the New York Yankees left behind the cold days of the beginning of the campaign and has woven a series of feats that project him towards his second MVP award and an even bigger goal: the Triple Crown of batting.
The Major League Baseball calendar is barely halfway through, and the All-Star Game break approaches with the same cadence as the steps in a recurring dream. Judge, immersed in a rhythm almost supernatural, seems destined to capture the Triple Crown. Upon leaving Toronto, he had 31 homers and 82 RBIs, the highest number in the American League and the entire circuit. His batting average, .316, places him in second place, just a breath behind the .317 of Luis Rengifo of the Los Angeles Angels. On Sunday, Judge touched the top of the batting average until Rengifo, with a double, clung to first place.
We must highlight the names of Steven Kwan and Connor Wong, whose highest averages are floating in the air but not yet considered qualified because their appearances at the plate do not reach the required threshold.
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In 2022, Judge was a titan who broke the record for home runs (62), evoking the feats of Roger Maris in 1961. Now, the captain of the Bronx Bombers rises again as a legitimate contender for the Triple Crown. After a winter-cold start, Aaron Judge has become the mainstay of the Yankees’ lineup. On April 26, his batting average was a cold .178, with an OPS of .674, four home runs, and only 13 RBIs, leaving in the air the question of whether his foot problems would remain back. But from April 27 to Sunday in Toronto, the captain has shone with a .385 average, 27 home runs, 69 RBIs, and 56 runs scored in 56 games. In total, in 84 games in 2024, Judge boasts an OPS of 1.144 and a wRC+ of 215, numbers that resonate like an echo in a vast, empty stadium.
Triple Crown Winners
Miguel Cabrera was the last to reach the Triple Crown in MLB, with a .330 average, 44 home runs, and 139 RBIs in 2012, an achievement that seems as distant as a childhood memory. Before him, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. The last Yankee to achieve this was Mickey Mantle in 1956, with Lou Gehrig also in 1934, names that resonate in the empty stands of time.
“It would be great,” Judge said, “but it’s not my focus. Here, many of us don’t play for things like that, and we play to win. Every time we wear these stripes and wear the ‘NY,’ we do it to win. It would be great if that comes with other achievements, but I think we are all focused on getting the championship first.”
His words float in the air, leaving a wake of humility and determination, like the echo of a baseball hitting the glove on a summer afternoon as the season continues its relentless course.