While there’s been so much focus on the New York Yankees‘ surprising struggles in recent weeks, it’s easy to lose sight of the absolutely ridiculous season Aaron Judge is putting together.
There’s still a week to go in August, and Judge is already approaching 50 home runs.
Judge hit his 48th homer of the season on Tuesday night against the New York Mets at Yankee Stadium. And it was a bomb, traveling an estimated distance of 453 feet.
On the season, Judge now has a robust .295/.392/.662 slash line with a 195 wRC+. He leads all major-league position players in wins above replacement, valued at 7.8 WAR per FanGraphs. He’s the clear AL MVP frontrunner at the moment.
The 48 homers sound incredible enough, but especially when you consider that nobody else in the majors has at least 35 dingers (the Philadelphia Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber is second with 34 homers).
If Judge can continue going off over these final six weeks of the regular season, he truly has a great chance to reach 60-plus homers.
As Jomboy Media’s Talkin’ Yanks notes, Judge is currently on pace for 63 homers, for example.
Aaron Judge is on pace to hit 63 home runs this season pic.twitter.com/jwJAA2ldMG
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 24, 2022
Here’s a look at how the baseball world is reacting to Judge getting to 48 homers on a massive blast:
Aaron Judge just obliterated a baseball, RIP
— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) August 24, 2022
It was a minor aside for today's piece, but I had @DSzymborski re-run his ZiPS model for Aaron Judge, whose chance of hitting 62 or more homers dropped from 21.3% to 12.9% from August 5 to August 22. With #48 tonight, It's on the rise again https://t.co/J2R0vkbx9J
— Jay Jaffe (@jay_jaffe) August 24, 2022