What Does Aaron Judge Mean to the Yankees? Everything

Since he took baseball by storm in 2017 Aaron Judge has been superhuman on the baseball field. There are hundreds of ways that I could prove this by using both fancy and non-fancy statistics, but I would just be stating the obvious. In a world where just about any topic can be divisive, I think we can all agree that there are at most a handful of humans in the history of baseball that could hit a baseball better than Aaron Judge currently does.

Judge is only rendered ineffective when he's literally not on the field due to injury. [This is where some people will scream out loud, "But he sucks in the playoffs!" There's some validity to that eloquence, but we're gonna keep the scope of this to the regular season only, for reasons you'll see shortly]. Unfortunately, we've seen a few extended stays on the injured list for Judge over the years and his most recent stint got me thinking: What impact does Judge's absence really have on the Yankees? Do they miss their superhuman superstar as much as we think they do?

Aaron Judge's greatness masks the Yankees' many flaws.

Jeffrey Hyde/Wikimedia Commons

In baseball, we don't tend to look at team records with and without a particular player for two main reasons: 1) half the players are pitchers who don't play everyday, and 2) the rules of baseball demand that the work is equitably split among the players. Sure, you can have your best players hit at the top of the order, but generally even your worst players will have to step to the plate almost as much as them. One player can have only so much influence on a game. Nevertheless, we're going to look at the Yankees record with Judge and without to see what it tells us because they seem utterly helpless without him.

I'm limiting this exercise to the last six seasons because to my eye, something distinctly shifted with the Yankees during that infamous COVID year. From 2017 to 2019 Judge was no doubt the best player on the team, but he was also surrounded by promising young talent that fostered hope for a bright future. In 2020, most of that talent around Judge either regressed significantly or suffered career altering injuries. Since that time, the reliance on Judge has only increased. So, what do the Judge vs. no Judge win totals tell us?

*2025 record is through 8/4/2025

They tell us that when Aaron Judge is on the field for the Yankees they are a 90-95 win team that will perennially be in the playoffs and sometimes contend for a World Series title. When he's on the sidelines, the Yankees are a team that would be more at home near the bottom of the AL Central. That's a sad state of affairs for a team that has the ability to spend themselves out of holes in the roster but refuses to.

Sadder yet, the actions of the Yankees' braintrust show that they are keenly aware of a healthy Judge's ability to singlehandedly keep the Yankees afloat. In fact, that's their strategy every season. Judge's greatness alone can keep the Yankees competitive so there's no need for them to flesh out the roster with real baseball players. If that wasn't their thinking, they wouldn't have waited until a Judge injury (with the season two-thirds over) before acquiring an actual third baseman for the roster and assembling a viable bullpen. With Judge set to return tonight, I bet they're kicking themselves for splurging on such luxuries...

P.S. In my last post on the statues at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex I had missed Connie Mack. That post is now updated to complete the set.