Aaron Judge praised after June performance

This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Aaron Judge is on another historic tear, one that was recently rewarded with another automatic starting assignment in the American League outfield for the July 16 All-Star Game at Globe Life Field.

More than 3.4 million votes sent the Yankees’ captain to his sixth Midsummer Classic, and while there is no shortage of fans paying close attention to Judge’s surging season, his most ardent observers are a few feet away.

“It’s funny; I’ve watched him on TV forever,” said rookie Ben Rice (the Yanks’ No. 12 prospect). “To actually be in the same clubhouse as him and the field with him, it’s really cool. To see what he’s doing right now, it’s special.”

Judge was named the AL’s Player of the Month for June after hitting .409/.514/.864 (36-for-88), leading the Majors in RBIs (37), batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS (1.378) and total bases (76).

It was his second consecutive Player of the Month Award; Don Mattingly (Aug.-Sept. 1985) is the only other Yankee to claim those honors back-to-back. Judge’s 32 homers are the third most by a Yankee prior to an All-Star break, trailing only his 33 homers in 2022 and Roger Maris’ 33 in 1961.

“Obviously, you know about the power, right?” Rice said. “But he’s also a hitter, too. The guy is hitting like .320 [.318 through Wednesday]. To do that, with that kind of power too, it’s really, really impressive. He knows what he wants to do at the plate. It’s really impressive to watch.”

Asked how he feels at the plate these days, Judge replied, “We’re getting there.” Judge would prefer to talk about his teammates, like Rice, who has done a nice job filling in at first base after being called up to replace the injured Anthony Rizzo.

“That’s impressive,” Judge said. “At that age, to come in here, the teams he’s played are some tough teams and tough environments. I go back to [Saturday’s game at Toronto], he comes up and gets slotted into that two-hole real quick, comes out of the gate with a nice line drive to left-center.

“It’s just impressive at-bat after impressive at-bat. We saw what he was doing in the Minor Leagues, and it’s translating well up here.”