Aaron Judge might be having the best offensive season by a right-handed hitter ever due to his extraordinary performance metrics and historical comparisons. In 2022, Shohei Ohtani achieved a career-best 2.33 ERA, leading the American League in strikeout rate, while also launching 34 home runs and batting 44% better than league average. Despite these impressive stats, he did not receive the MVP award.
Instead, Aaron Judge outshined the two-way star during a remarkable season in which he broke the American League record by hitting 62 home runs. Fast forward two years, and in a season reminiscent of Barry Bonds’ legendary run in the early 2000s, Judge has taken his game to even greater heights.
While Judge’s current season may not surpass Bonds’ record-setting achievements, his production as a right-handed hitter is unprecedented.
As of now, after 130 games, Judge, the frontrunner for the American League MVP, boasts a staggering slash line of .333/.465/.732, with 51 homers and 122 RBIs. He is projected to finish the season with 63 home runs, 188 hits, 128 runs, and 150 RBIs. Remarkably, only Sammy Sosa has reached similar totals in a single season, achieving this in 1998 and 2001. Judge’s 1.197 OPS, along with his 229 OPS+ and 225 wRC+ (which adjusts for park and league environments), far surpasses Sosa’s numbers from those years.
Indeed, no right-handed hitter in the history of either the American or National League has matched Judge’s current OPS+ or wRC+, especially while hitting over 50 home runs.
When evaluating wRC+, the only right-handed hitter to come close to Judge’s extraordinary mark is Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby, who achieved a .424/.507/.696 line in 1924, with a 214 wRC+ and half as many home runs as Judge. It’s also noteworthy that legends like Josh Gibson and Mule Suttles recorded higher wRC+ scores than Judge this year, albeit in significantly fewer games.
Judge stands alone as the only right-handed hitter since baseball’s integration to have a season with a wRC+ of at least 205, and he is now on track to achieve this feat twice.
Only two players in MLB history have matched or exceeded Judge’s current slash line while also hitting a minimum of 50 home runs, both prior to MLB’s integration: Babe Ruth, who accomplished this three times, and Jimmie Foxx, who did it once in 1932.
1920: Babe Ruth (.376/.532/.847, 54 HRs, 255 OPS+, 234 wRC+)
1921: Babe Ruth (.378/.512/.846, 59 HRs, 239 OPS+, 218 wRC+)
1927: Babe Ruth (.356/.486/.772, 60 HRs, 225 OPS+, 208 wRC+)
1932: Jimmie Foxx (.364/.469/.749, 58 HRs, 207 OPS+, 194 wRC+)
2024: Aaron Judge (.333/.465/.732, 51 HRs, 229 OPS+, 225 wRC+)
This season, Bobby Witt Jr. — whose .347 batting average is the only thing keeping Judge from a potential triple crown — is poised to deliver one of the best overall seasons from a shortstop in history. However, in terms of award voting, Judge’s performance may overshadow Witt’s achievements. He leads the majors in wins above replacement, alongside his impressive counting stats.
Judge’s season did not start off on this remarkable note.
Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of Judge’s phenomenal season is that he was hitting just .197 with six home runs and a .725 OPS on May 2, after 33 games. At that point, many questioned whether last year’s lingering toe injury would hinder his 2024 season.
However, since then, Judge has turned his performance around dramatically, registering a slash line of .381/.510/.853 with 45 home runs and 104 RBIs over the next 97 games. Had he maintained this level from the start of the season, he would be on pace for an astonishing 75 home runs, echoing the memories of Bonds’ record-setting 2001 season.
While surpassing Bonds’ all-time home run record may not be feasible this year, Judge continues to set new historic benchmarks seemingly every week. Recently, he became the fastest player to reach 300 home runs. Following a two-homer game, he joined a select group as the fifth player in MLB history to hit at least 50 home runs in three different seasons, alongside legends Ruth, Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Álex Rodríguez.
By the end of the season, there’s a real possibility that Judge will join Sosa and McGwire as the only players ever to produce multiple 60 home run seasons. Notably, neither of them achieved this milestone while also batting .330, as Judge is currently doing. This season could very well be remembered as the best offensive performance by a right-handed hitter in baseball history.
