Aaron Judge must stand up

If you're a New York Yankees player, it's not necessarily easy to perform at a high level in this big market when it's time for the fall dance.

Alex Rodriguez learned this the hard way, finally beating the odds in 2009. Now it's Aaron Judge's turn, the captain's playoff woes having followed him from the moment he started playing October baseball.

In his first playoffs in 2017, Judge hit four home runs, but his .188 batting average wasn't up to snuff after a historic rookie season. At that point, strikeouts were a glaring problem, as in 57 plate appearances, he'd been retired 27 times on strikes.

And the situation didn't exactly improve over the next eight years. Sure, the outfielder cannoned sixteen long balls in series during that period, but again, the numbers he put on the board weren't good enough. In 220 plate appearances, the 33-year-old posted a .205 batting average with 86 strikeouts, nearly half of his plate appearances.

Not to mention last year, when a dropped ball in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series cost his team victory.

That has to change, and preferably in 2025. And there's every reason to believe it could happen, since in the midst of a frantic late-season race for the American League East Division title, Judge rose to the occasion.

Indeed, Judge has won Player of the Week honors in two of the last three weeks. In September, the big hitter hit ten home runs with a batting average of .370 and a wRC+ of 241.

Aaron Judge has been named AL Player of the Week for the third time this season, which is the most of any player in the league

He went 9-for-20 with four home runs and a 1.693 OPS in six Yankees wins pic.twitter.com/nPMaXaH6Sg

– Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) September 29, 2025

All that remains now is to transpose this into the coming weeks, starting of course with tonight's game (Tuesday).

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