MLB Rumors: Aaron Judge disrespect, Cards IL move, and ex-Yankees prospect goes off

MLB Rumors: Aaron Judge the scapegoat, not savior? Pundit spews nonsense

It’s one thing to point the finger at Aaron Boone. It’s another to point at Aaron Judge.

WFAN’s Sal Licata gave one of the most asinine takes of the year in claiming the five-time All-Star somehow deserves to shoulder a portion of the Yankees’ woes.

Falling below .500 and seeing their playoff hopes diminish with every week, the Yankees have no clear-cut scapegoat for 2023. They’re simply a bad team with bad vibes and bad luck.

Part of their bad luck manifested in Judge picking up an injury from the fluky incident of crashing into a wall. Obviously, the Yankees can’t fault Judge for getting hurt, but according to Licata, they can blame him for not living up to expectations.

Licata said:

"“Since he’s been back, the Yankees haven’t been any good. I get he’s hobbled and it’s a bad toe. I get it, I get how great he can be. But why is Aaron Judge absolved of all blame here, when you look at what’s gone wrong with the 2023 Yankees? He should be front and center. He’s now the captain of the team. He’s been the leader and the face of a franchise that has failed year after year. He’s a great player… but we’re overlooking the biggest part that’s been here. He’s the one guy from 2017 on that hasn’t delivered.”"

Let’s backtrack a little here. Licata’s point seems to be that Judge has been unable to achieve any real glory for the Yankees in the last seven years. New York shelled out $360 million for Judge just to stumble toward another pennant-less season.

But failing to reach the Yankees’ high bar is not on Judge. His franchise chose to pay him knowing that Judge hasn’t always been that healthy.

As Red Sox reporter Gabrielle Starr notes, Judge played 157 regular-season games in 2022, a career-high. He also played 155 games in his rookie year in 2017. From 2018 to 2021, though, Judge played just 390 out of 546 possible games. And the Yankees still paid him.

Licata also has a problem with Judge’s measly postseason numbers, stating that Judge had a .565 OPS in 17 playoff games since 2018. Admittedly, Judge has not done the most he could to help the Yankees win a World Series in part due to injuries and in part due to sparse droughts. Yet expecting him to be some kind of knight in shining armor because New York paid him an exorbitant amount of money doesn’t pass the smell test.

Judge, the face of this unspectacular Yankees era, is not a record-setting robot. He’s going to have MVP-caliber years, and he’s also going to have his injury-impacted years, and that’s something New York already knew long before the ink dried on his contract.