What is Wrong With Aaron Judge?

And can he fix it before the World Series ends?

(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Hi friends-

I’ve put out an all points bulletin for a 32-year-old man named Aaron Judge.

He stands 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 282 pounds. He was last seen wearing a grey top with NEW YORK emblazoned across his chest, and matching grey trousers. There’s a chance he’ll be in the Boogie Down Bronx tonight wearing a white uniform with black pinstripes and holding a bat.

If you see this man, do not approach. It’s possible he’s been replaced by Arson Judge, his evil twin who was supposed to sign with the San Francisco Giants two off-seasons ago, who cannot hit. The only explanation I can come up with as to why Aaron Judge has not shown up to the World Series yet is that Arson Judge has him locked in a basement in a Fresno suburb, and is hellbent on lighting the Yankees season on fire.

I know it sounds crazy, dear reader. But can you come up with a better explanation for why the best hitter in the world has failed to appear in the biggest games of his life when his team needs him most?

Ugh.

Playoff baseball is a large sample size marathon reduced to a small sample size sprint. We would never call a player in a two-game slump in the regular season a choke artist, but playoff baseball is like life: not fair.

Aaron Judge is coming off perhaps the finest regular season for a right-handed hitter in baseball history. He led the league in homers (58), RBI (144), walks (133), on-base percentage (.458), slugging (.701), OPS (1.159) and total bases (392). He will win his second American League MVP award next month, and it should be by unanimous vote.

And yet.

If the Yankees fail to come back and win this World Series and Judge continues to flail, his regular season for the ages will be couched with “yeah, but…..”

And he will become the butt of cruel jokes the same way Clayton Kershaw was for seven frustrating Octobers until he finally won a ring.

So far through the first two games of the World Series, Judge is 1-for-9 with 6 strikeouts, no runs, no RBI, no walks, and no clue. His one hit was a single. His OPS sits at .222. This is a man who by himself was worth 10.8 wins to the Yankees this season over the average player.

His performance at the plate so far in the Fall Classic has subtracted 8.4% from the Yankees chances of winning the World Series.

But it somehow feels even worse than that.

When Aaron Judge is rolling, he is the most feared hitter in the world. He is enormous and menacing in the batter’s box. Pitching to him must feel like staring down a T-Rex with a rare t-bone steak in your hands.

His teammates Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto are both scorching the ball right now. If Judge could simply hit at a mere *all-star level* in this series, Dodger pitchers would be facing a nightmare getting through this Yankee lineup. The difference between having to navigate three assassins hitting back-to-back-to-back instead of two is massive. It’s why the Dodgers are so much better this year with Ohtani-Betts-Freeman than they were the last two postseasons with just Betts-Freeman.

Instead, it’s Judge who is living the nightmare.

When the Dodgers intentionally walked Juan Soto to get to Judge with two out in the ninth inning of Game 1 with the score tied, he fell behind 0-2 in the count and then popped out.

He got a chance to be a hero in the ninth inning again in Game 2 with Soto on first, no out, and the Yankees down by three. He waved at a sweeper two feet out of the strike zone and struck out. The Yankees still managed to load the bases against a suddenly shaky Blake Treinen, but lost 4-2 because Judge didn’t come through.

Why is this happening? How can a hitter who was so good during the regular season be so bad with the World Series trophy on the line?