Through one month of the season, things were not going well for Aaron Judge. Despite the Yankees strong start he found himself struggling to find a way to be productive.
However, the baseball season is long and things can change very quickly. The month of May has been much kinder to Judge and his numbers now look much closer to the stats you expect from the Yankees superstar
Aaron Judge in April
In the first full month of the season Aaron Judge was batting just .220. Despite being known as a power hitter and high strikeout guy Judge is generally able to keep his batting average at a solid level. His lowest batting averages of his career came in 2016, a season in which he was called up close to the season’s end and only played 27 games, in which he hit .179 and in the Covid shortened 2020 in which he hit .257.
The main struggle for Aaron Judge was his ability to hit fastballs. Although pitchers try to avoid throwing Judge fastballs, they do occasionally have to in order to keep him honest. When he saw fastballs in 2023 he had a .377 batting average and a .852 slugging. These marks were fifth and second best in MLB amongst qualifiers respectively. Through April 23 of this season, he was hitting just .189 and slugging .342. He also had a career high 6 pop ups in April.
Even when he was struggling, there was much optimism that he would be able to return to normal. Aaron Judge ended up missing two weeks in spring training due to an abdominal injury. Spring training at bats are important for hitters to get their timing. Judge’s poor hitting vs. the fastballs can very easily be explained as an issue of timing. When you’re going up against 95 mile per hour fastballs a split second can be the difference between a pop up and a home run.
There were some legitimate questions about if the Yankees had made too many changes to Aaron Judge’s routine however. The first change they made was moving him from second to third in the batting order. They did this so Juan Soto could bat in the second spot. Judge has also been the full time center fielder this season. Judge normally plays right field, but with Jasson Dominguez hurt he was next on the depth chart. Although his main issue was poor timing some fans wondered if these changes were making the problem worse. Before picking up his play in May there were some thoughts about moving Judge back to second in the order and trying Verdugo in center field.
Photo via NJ.com
Aaron Judge in May
May has not only seen Judge return to form, but play some of the best baseball of his career. Through May 28 Judge has a .376 batting average, .495 on base percentage and a .906 slugging percentage in May. If you look at his overall season stats, it looks like his cold start never even happened. He holds a .407 on base percentage, which is second in the American league behind his teammate Juan Soto. Meanwhile his slugging percentage of .622 and his OPS of 1.029 lead all American league hitters.
His overall batting average vs. fastballs has gone up to .258. Although this number is below his career average it is certainly an improvement over the .189 mark from April. His timing issues from early in the season have been clearly resolved. It did not take any drastic changes like switching his batting order or stance, just repeated reps at the plate.
Not only is Aaron Judge’s timing back to normal, it may be the best it’s been in his career. He currently is hitting 40.4 percent of his batting balls in the sweet spot. If he is able to keep this percentage it would be the best mark of his career. It’s a three percent increase from his mark from last season. Could it be that struggling with his timing forced Judge to work on his swing and make it better?
Another area where Aaron Judge has become better is hitting balls in the strike zone. Throwing pitchers in the middle of the strike zone to Judge is not a wise idea. However, in the past the lower part of the zone has been an area that pitchers could exploit due to Judge’s six foot seven height. His 48 percent contact rate on pitches swung at in the zone is a career high.
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