Marcus Stroman Reveals the Surprising Comment Aaron Judge Made to Him After Dugout Shouting

Plenty of incorrect assumptions were made about what Aaron Judge said to Marcus Stroman in the Yankees dugout.

Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge talks to Marcus Stroman midgame /

Friday night, the New York Yankees would experience a needed offensive explosion. After going 2-8 in the 10 games leading into the night, New York put 16 runs on the board, besting their previous season-high of 15 runs in a game. A 16-5 box score gives the impression of a smooth ride for the Yankees, but it may have been the most dramatic win of such a margin in recent memory.

In the fifth inning, Marcus Stroman—who started the game with a 28-pitch inning but followed it up with 11, 17, and 12-pitch frames in the subsequent innings—was struggling to get out of the fifth. With the bases loaded on two hits and a walk and zero outs in the inning, Stroman needed outs, especially with Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. up to bat. He got Guerrero to put a ball on the ground to shortstop Anthony Volpe, who lobbed the ball to second for a force-out. Gleyber Torres threw the ball to first, but it wasn't in time, Guerrero was safe, and the Yankees missed on the double play.

Stroman was incensed at the outcome, shouting into his glove and appearing to—according to lip-readers—denounce the speed at which Torres threw the ball to first.

Another run scores and the Yanks don't turn the double play and Stroman is pissed pic.twitter.com/xoUpFQ1x2i

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) June 29, 2024

Stroman went on to walk another batter and was replaced. In the dugout, Stroman continued to display his upset state, appearing to shout about the intensity—or more accurately, the lack thereof—that New York displayed in the inning.

Then, a series of events were caught which led to some interpretations being drawn. Captain Aaron Judge came to speak to Stroman in the top of the sixth inning, which many interpreted as Judge telling Stroman his actions—yelling publicly at teammates—were out of line. Later, when Gleyber Torres hit a home run, Stroman was first out of the dugout to embrace him, which many drew the line as to being an, "apology," to Torres.

After the game, though, Stroman revealed Judge's comments were not reprimanding in nature. Instead, Judge was apologizing for missing what would have been the first out of the inning.

"Judge is the man. He was just letting me know—which I wasn't even conscious of—that he wanted to play the first ball in the inning a little bit better," Stroman said.

"Which, it was a hit off the bat, I wasn't even thinking about that. Yeah, he was just checking in with me on that and letting me know that I was doing a good job battling."

Stroman appeared to admit postgame that his actions were out of line, suggesting he had discussions with the interested parties after the game.

"I'm very passionate," Stroman said. "I care a lot about winning for this team, for this city, and yeah, sometimes raw emotion comes out, so I checked in with everybody I needed to check in with after the game... It's all directed toward winning and being great out there."

Torres said he had no issue with Stroman's reaction. Manager Aaron Boone had similar comments after the game:

"He and I talked about it after the game, and no issue with where Stro's mind, heart and focus is," Boone said. "Again, sometimes when you're competing like heck it spills over a little bit. There's no issues in that room with anything."

The ball Judge was apologizing for not getting in the fifth inning had an xBA of .510, according to Statcast.