New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge has been historically good the last two seasons. Former general manager and current MLB Network analyst Steve Phillips believes he has been so dominant that the outfielder is now the greatest hitter in team history, even better than baseball icon Babe Ruth.

“You look at Ruth, and you look at Roger Maris with his 61 home runs, you look at the great seasons for the Yankees, I would make the case that Aaron Judge is the best Yankee hitter ever,” Phillips began by saying on Friday. “We know the more you face a pitcher, the more comfortable you get. When Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927, he only faced 64 different pitchers. Seven of them one time. Maris in 1961 faced 101 different pitchers. Fourteen of them only one time. So the familiarity benefited the hitting.

“Aaron Judge, this year, has already faced 156 pitchers. Seventy-eight of them one time,” he said. “When he hit his 62 home runs, he faced 256 different pitchers. Ninety-three of them only once. So there was no familiarity when you think about it. Rue Alberg gave up 17 home runs in his career to Ruth. I look at this era; there were eight teams in the American League when Ruth played. He faced the same guys over and over again. And the guys he owned, he kept owning them over and over. For Aaron Judge, he’s not facing anybody that many times.”

  • Aaron Judge stats (2025): .392 AVG, .488 OBP, .776 SLG, 1.264 OPS, 25 HR, 59 RBI, 65 R

The case against Aaron Judge being better than Babe Ruth

It is a very fair point that Phillips makes. That ability to see the same pitches and arm angles often is a major plus for a batter. Ruth seeing the same guys constantly may have helped pad his stats back in the 20s. But there is also a flip side to any debate.

The level of talent was likely even more concentrated back in Ruth’s day. So he was probably facing the best of the best of his time consistently. Furthermore, the game allowed pitchers to be risky and hammer batters inside more than it does now. Plus, a case can be made with 30 current MLB teams, pitching may be a bit watered down, especially when it comes to bullpens.

Co-host Brian Kenny also pointed to the fact that Ruth’s career OPS+ was 206. While Judge sits at 178. The Yankees icon also had a career average of .342. The current Yanks captain is far behind at .295. It certainly is an interesting debate, and it says a lot about how good the New York left fielder is right now that he is in the hitting discussion with the MLB legend.

More New York Yankees news and rumors:

By Jason Burgos
After earning his journalism degree in 2017, Jason Burgos served as a contributor to several sites, including MMA Sucka ... More about Jason Burgos
Mentioned in this article:

More About:
0What do you think?Post a comment.