Opponents Have Done This To Jose Ramirez More Than Aaron Judge

Jose Ramirez leads all of baseball with intentional walks with Aaron Judge right behind him.

If you've hit 60 home runs, are going for the all-time American League home run record, tied with Babe Ruth for most home runs by a Yankee in a single season, and have 128 RBI while on the verge of winning the triple crown, you're probably going to get intentionally walked a lot.

That sure has happened quite a bit to Aaron Judge this season. But surprisingly he doesn't lead the league in intentional walks.

The honor goes to the Guardians' own Jose Ramirez.

Ramirez has been intentionally walked 19 times in 2022 compared to Judge's 17. The next closest to these two is Pete Alonso who's been given the free pass 16 times.

The most shocking part about all of this isn't necessarily that Ramirez is leading the way, it's that he wasn't intentionally walked for the first time until May 31! 

This was in a game against the Royals where apparently manager Mike Matheny had just enough and sent Jose to first without throwing him a pitch. 

I don't blame any manager for not wanting to pitch to Ramirez. According to Baseball Reference, he is batting .319 with a 1.031 OPS in high-leverage situations. 

One reason why Ramirez may be getting intentionally walked more is because of who is hitting behind Judge. That would be the likes of Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton, and Josh Donaldson. Certainly, these are all known sluggers so it is hard to pitch around Judge.

But teams are learning they may have to pitch are Ramirez too with how clutch Josh Naylor, Andre Gimenez, and Oscar Gonzalez have become.

It will be interesting to see if this trend continues into the postseason or if teams will elect to pitch to the third baseman.

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