New York Yankees Slugger On-Pace For Crazy Season Despite Rough Stretches

The New York Yankees MVP contender is on-pace to have one of the best years of his careers despite having multiple underwhelming stretches.

Jul 13, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (99) gestures following his solo home run in the fifth inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. / Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Yankees recently had a terrible stretch of games and their normally reliable slugger slowing to a halt didn't help things out. The good news, he's started to return to form and isn't expected to slow back down again.

Aaron Judge had a really rough start to July, slashing just a .200/.282/.286 line for the first week and a half while New York went just 2-7. The Yankees were already struggling when Judge was doing well, so him doing bad made things look even worse.

It was reminiscent of the start of the season when he was slashing .207/.340/.414 for March and April.

In spite of these extended rough stretches, he's on pace to hit more home runs than he has in all but his record-breaking season. If he kept his same pace from before the All-Star break, he would finish with 56 home runs. That would be a top-20 season all time.

He's been able to remain in the race for the triple crown (which he currently holds) thanks to his crazy May and June. He had a .384/.496/.892 slashing line with 25 home runs and 64 RBI for those two months alone.

As MLB's Theo DeRosa examined whether or not some of the league's stars can stay on-pace from their first halves, he believes Judge should be able to hit the 56 mark at least.

"It’s far from easy to hit 56 home runs in a season, but it’s a testament to Judge’s production that he seems a fairly safe bet to do so," said DeRosa. "The Yankees slugger set the American League single-season home run record with 62 in 2022 and hit 37 homers in 106 games last season. At the All-Star break, Judge had 34 homers in 96 games."

The 32-year-old has historically closed the season out with a lot of home runs, hitting 100 between August to the start of October for his career. He hit 17 in that stretch last year and 20 the year before. History says that he should at least hit 50, and that's not counting the last week and a half of July.

New York's season outlook will rely on their best players being at their best. The Baltimore Orioles have been at the top with them, but the Boston Red Sox have turned this into a three-team race for first in the AL East.

Judge winning his second triple crown is not out of the question, giving him an incredibly impressive season with some truly inhuman stretches.