All in With John Jastremski

Last week, Aaron Judge hit his 300th career home run against the Chicago White Sox. 

Milestones usually bring about a lot of reflection. A wedding, a graduation, a round number birthday, but the same applies in baseball. 

Judge became the fastest player ever to reach the 300 home run milestone. It’s pretty remarkable considering as dominant a player as he has been in the sport since 2017, he also has missed his fair share of time due to injuries. 

One thing is for certain, when Aaron Judge plays baseball, he is remarkable. 

He already holds the American League and Yankee record for homers in his record setting 2022 season. 

He is on his way to winning his 2nd AL MVP award and I would argue that his 2024 season has been more dominant and more impressive than his record setting season two years ago. 

Judge has become a more complete hitter over time, eliminating the flaws in his swing and becoming a guy who hits for power, average and is just the total package across the board. 

Judge is on his way to becoming an all time great Yankee. 

The numbers and the awards are there, but one thing at the moment is missing. 

A World Series championship. 

Fair or unfair, Aaron Judge is being compared to some of the greatest players to ever wear a Yankee uniform. 

The numbers he has put up through the first 8 years of his career are Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle -esque. 

The difference between Judge and all of those players at the moment is that he’s searching for that ultimate prize in October. 

Now look, Don Mattingly was an all time Yankee. Beloved, an MVP and a Monument Park lifer. 

Mattingly has the stigma attached to him, unfairly, because after all baseball is a team game, but the disclaimer always with Donnie Baseball is that he never won the World Series. 

Aaron Judge has a lot of baseball left to play. One would think, the more he keeps knocking on the door in October, the more likely it would be that he finally gets to the top of the mountain. 

That said, you never know what the sports gods have in store. 

Judge is at the peak of his powers. He has never been better. 

A postseason run in which he carries the team and delivers the Yankees 28th World Championship is the final piece of the puzzle. 

If Judge can deliver on that mission, we can finally say he has it all.