Meet the player stopping Aaron Judge from winning the triple crown

Analyzing the player standing in the way of Aaron Judge’s potential historical feat, Luis Arraez.

New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is having one of the best seasons not only in recent history, but MLB history in general. As we near the end of the 2022 regular season, the 30-year-old leads the American League in both home runs (61) and RBI (130).

Barring some sort of otherworldly come back by either Mike Trout (who trails Judge in home runs by, well….22 home runs) or Jose Ramirez, who trails Judge in RBI by eight, the Yankees star seems like a lock to lead the AL in both of those offensive categories.

The lone statistic Judge needs to hope for a late surge on in the AL Triple Crown race is batting average. Judge currently sits in second place in the AL batting crown race, just four BA points behind one of the game’s peskiest hitters in Minnesota Twins infielder Luis Arraez.

Luis Arraez: The one player still standing in Aaron Judge’s way in the race for history

Arraez, 25, is a contact-oriented player who has an offensive player profile that is becoming increasingly rare in today’s game. He doesn’t carry much pop in his bat but his eye at the plate is absolutely ridiculous and he is one of the more reliable players in all of baseball when it comes to his team needing a baserunner.

While Arraez is not going to come anywhere close to Judge’s overall offensive output this year, he does currently lead the American League in batting average with a .315 mark with just three regular season contests remaining for the Twins.

Long one of the more underrated players in the league, Arraez was somewhat surprisingly named quite a few times in The Athletic‘s recent player poll when players around the league were asked who they would want at the plate in Game 7 of the World Series with the game on the line. Judge, his only remaining competition in the AL batting title race, led the way with 15.5% of the vote but the light-hitting Twins utilityman gathered 8.3% of the vote in his own right.

This year saw Arraez make his first career All-Star Game appearance and has seen him draw more walks (48) than strikeouts (43), an increasingly difficult feat to accomplish in itself. He and the Twins will be taking on the White Sox for the next three days while Judge and the Yankees will face the Rangers in Arlington across four more contests.

With pitchers around the league throwing around Judge as he remains one home run away from breaking the single season American League record for homers, he may have to rely more on an offensive slip-up from Arraez than an increase in production for himself. Just four more games stand in the way of what could be the second American League Triple Crown winner since 1967.