Aaron Judge is putting up numbers for the New York Yankees this season that, plainly, don't look real. After adding a ninth-inning, game-tying home run at Fenway Park on Friday, the prohibitive AL MVP favorite is now hitting .390 with a 1.265 OPS while mashing 26 homers already. All of those lead all of baseball or are tied for the MLB lead. Oh, he's also second in the sport in RBI with 60. But Pittsburgh Pirates legend Andrew McCutchen recent revelation regarding accusations of MLB using a "dead ball" this season only makes those numbers even more eye-popping than they already are.
Early on Saturday morning, Mets beat writer Ben Yoel suggested that MLB was using "dead balls" this season, meaning baseballs that are engineered to not go as far as they normally do. His evidence was a clip from Friday night as Mets star Juan Soto belted a ball to deep right center only for it to die on the warning track when everyone, perhaps even including the slugger, seemed to think it was gone.
Following the Pirates' Saturday matinee, McCutchen must have caught wind of the clip and, as such, revealed that Yoel's theory actually isn't a Mets fan wearing a tinfoil hat but, rather, that there is something to it based on what the veteran outfielder has been told.
"I was told by a rep for MLB that the balls are indeed different this year. They stated 'higher seams' which produces more drag on baseball, causing baseballs to not travel as far as they should. When asked why, I was told 'every baseball is hand sewn so no ball is the same.' When I asked if there is something that can be done about correcting the current performance of this years baseball, I was told there was 'nothing' that can be done about it this season BUT, they are 'working hard on getting to the bottom of why the seams are higher.' So, yea you’re not wrong Ben."
I was told by a rep for MLB that the balls are indeed different this year. They stated “higher seams” which produces more drag on baseball, causing baseballs to not travel as far as they should. When asked why, I was told “every baseball is hand sewn so no ball is the same.” When… https://t.co/StaUR45PFv
— Andrew McCutchen (@TheCUTCH22) June 14, 2025
There's a lot to unpack with that, but mostly that there is a dead ball problem, and that only makes what Judge is doing this season all the more unreal.
Aaron Judge is defying 'dead balls' in MLB with historic season
Starting with Judge, though, it's wild to consider that baseballs, as McCutchen claims an MLB representative has admitted, aren't going as far. Yet, the Yankees superstar has a 1.200+ OPS in mid-June and is tracking to have at least something close to another 60 home run season.
While there are plenty of criticism of Judge once the calendar flips to October, he's simply on another level than everyone else in baseball. In fact, he's firmly asserting himself as a top candidate in the conversation of the greatest right-handed hitters in baseball history. To put that into perspective, there isn't another player in MLB who has an OPS over 1.000 entering play on Saturday. Judge, again, is 265 points clear of that.
So, the fact that he's doing this when the ball is quite literally working against him is ridiculous. We knew he was great because the numbers all back that up. At the same time, though, this revelation from McCutchen makes us realize that we might not have actually been giving him enough credit.
MLB's newest 'dead ball' comes at the worst time
For all of the Rob Manfred critics (and many of their valid points), it's undeniable that baseball is in as good of a spot from a popularity standpoint as it's been in some time. In fact, MLB.com press release in early June stated that viewership is up across the board. FOX has seen a 10% increase from last season, ESPN has seen a 22% increase, TBS a 16% increase, MLB Network a 13% increase, and MLB.TV has a 27% increase as well.
So for the league's representative to tell McCutchen that there is an issue with the baseballs — one that has not been made public, it's crucial to note — and that there is no fix for the problem right now couldn't come at a worse time. Baseball needs to capitalize on the popularity increase that MLB is currently experiencing. Dead balls are going to have the opposite, adverse effect.
To be clear, the league this year has still been wildly entertaining, thanks in no small part to Judge's exploits. However, baseball shouldn't be that relaint on an outlier in that capacity. Instead, this is an issue that, if it is as persistent and pervasive as McCutchen suggested, needs to be remedied in a hurry.