The New York Yankees were recently dealt a major blow over the weekend when they dropped three out of four games at home in a crucial series against their arch rivals, the Boston Red Sox. They lost their spot atop the American League Wild Card standings, and while they are still just a half-game back of Boston for the top spot, their recent trend isn't promising.
To make matters worse, Aaron Judge struggled mightily in the series and was not the Judge that we are used to seeing. In fact, it looked more like Judge when the postseason rolls around, as the veteran slugger and two-time AL MVP has shown a tendency to struggle when the stakes are at their highest — not unlike the NBA's James Harden.
But as the Yankees try to make a push towards the postseason, now is the time for Judge to prove he's much more than that, and to rewrite his legacy.
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Aaron Judge under the microscope as Yankees begin crucial stretch
Obviously, Judge and Harden are quite different in a lot of ways, so the comparison might be a little unfair. Judge has always worked hard and shown up ready to play and ready to win, even though the results haven't been there in big games. He also has never tried to make any excuses for failing. Harden is the opposite, struggling in big games but also not being afraid to make excuses for those failures.
But performance-wise, the similarities are striking. If the Yankees want to go back to the World Series this fall, they are going to need Judge to perform the way he typically does in the regular season, particularly the way he did in 2022 and 2024, when he won AL MVP honors and was hitting home runs left and right.
Without Judge performing well in big games, the Yankees will ultimately be in trouble, even before the postseason arrives, and it could cost them a chance to even make it back to October. Now is the time for Judge to prove that he is capable of performing when the stakes are at their highest. If he is unable to rise to the occasion, it could ultimately hurt his legacy and prevent him from becoming an all-time great.
He is hitting .324/.439/.669 with 40 home runs, 92 RBI a 6.8 WAR and a 1.108 OPS this season, so he certainly has a case to win the AL MVP award for a third time. But the Yankees need him to perform like that to avoid missing the playoffs, and he also needs to do it for his own legacy. Judge will be 34 next April, and he has some injury risk in his past; we just don't know how many prime years he has left, and we don't know how many chances this current Yankees core will give him to meaningfully contend. Each opportunity is precious, and if he squanders this one, his legacy might be set in stone.
The accolades speak for themselves, but Judge will want to be remembered for positive reasons, not for not being able to produce in big moments. While Judge certainly has a better attitude than Harden and better work ethic, that doesn't change the fact that he has struggled in big moments.
It will be interesting to see if he can finally shake his playoff demons.