Aaron Judge on track to keep making home run history

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.

NEW YORK – Of all the accolades heaped upon Aaron Judge’s plate over the past few years, this might be the most fitting. In describing how the Yankees’ captain impacts his team, one member of the 2009 Yanks described it this way: an incredible combination of Alex Rodriguez’s power and Derek Jeter’s leadership.

That comparison was made by Jerry Hairston Jr., one of the many former Bombers who attended the Old-Timers’ Day festivities at Yankee Stadium. Though the weekend was a celebration for the players who brought home the 2009 championship, it also allowed them to marvel up close at Judge, who is doing everything he can to deliver the next title.

“It’s amazing. It seems like he just continues to get better and better,” Jeter said. “He’s just fun to watch. I think he’s carried that legacy and tradition of the organization of superstar players. More important than what he does on the field, he’s a great representative of this organization. I personally have enjoyed getting to know him. I’m a fan of his and what he’s been able to accomplish.”

“Aaron is such a unicorn,” Rodriguez said. “I love the game of baseball so much, and I’ve never seen a player quite like him. He looks like an NFL tight end: 6-foot-7, 282 pounds, under 10 percent body fat. The guy is just a specimen. He makes me look small. He makes all of us up here look small.

“But also, he has a unique element to him that Derek and Mo [Mariano Rivera] have. No matter how big the stage is, he keeps the main thing, the main thing. Not only is he getting better on the field, but he’s a world-class human being. He has great parents. He’s just an easy guy to cheer for. I do think he will be a world champion, because it’s all he really thinks about. As good as the numbers are, Aaron Judge wants to win, so I think he will.”

Jorge Posada, who spent 17 years squatting behind the plate and calling pitches against the best hitters the AL had to offer, said there is only one player from his era who compares. Like Barry Bonds, Posada said, Judge has been tallying scores of walks and taking advantage of the few pitches he gets in each game.

“He hits a fly ball that goes out, and it’s impressive,” Posada said. “The other day, a ball he hit to right field, it was like a left-handed hitter. He has just so much power, and he’s always behind it. It looks like he’s always on time. You look at his numbers now, and you’re like, ‘What the hell?’ It’s crazy, what he’s doing. It really is very impressive.”

“To see a player of that caliber, I was nowhere near the kind of player that he is,” Matsui said through interpreter Roger Kahlon. “I feel like the way he’s playing is, in some sense, that is his norm. It may look impressive from some perspective, but when he’s running on all cylinders, that may be his norm.”

Judge said that he appreciated having the 2009 Yankees in the clubhouse before Saturday’s game, hoping to soak up some of that championship pedigree. For all his success on the diamond thus far, Judge has yet to appear in a World Series, having advanced no further than the AL Championship Series. In 44 postseason games, Judge has batted .211/.310/.462 with 13 homers and 25 RBIs.

Posada said that he believes there will be a day when Judge and his teammates ride on parade floats through the Canyon of Heroes, as the Yankees last did 15 autumns ago.

“I think it’s going to happen,” Posada said. “It is hard, you know. We talk about legacies, and you want to win. A lot of the guys don’t get a chance to get to the World Series; [Don] Mattingly, stuff like that. So putting a team together to win is very important here. I think eventually he will win. He cares, and he reminds me a lot of Derek. He always says the right thing. He’s always thinking about the team, and that’s very important.”