Judge relishes chase: ‘The grind is what makes it fun’
With nine games left in the regular season and his Yankees in the second Wild Card spot after Wednesday night’s win, Aaron Judge says he relishes the opportunity to essentially have a playoff game every night. The Yankees need wins in the worst way to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016. But when asked if this season has been particularly taxing, Judge says he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Yeah, but that’s baseball,” Judge said, his 6-foot-7 frame folded between the top of the Yankees’ bench and the dugout ceiling.
“That’s what I live for, the ups and downs,” the 29-year-old star told the Daily News. “The grind is what makes it fun. We feel great. We hold our own destiny here. I kind of like that.”
In his first four seasons, the Yankees either had the division all but clinched by this point or knew they were destined for a Wild Card game at Yankee Stadium. This season, the division is out of reach, so they could be ticketed for MLB’s dream scenario — a one-game bonanza at Fenway Park — or a trip across the border to Toronto, or the third home Wild Card game of Judge’s career.
“You feel the pressure but that’s a good thing,” he offered. “I want to feel that pressure. When the game’s on the line I want to be in the box.”
In August, when Judge was in the box it usually meant a ball was about to come off his bat at a ridiculous velocity. He hit .355/.430/.627 that month. The back half of July and all of August were a feel-good montage of hugs and high fives for the Yankees.
Then September appeared like the grim reaper.
After losing seven in a row at the top of the month, culminating in a 10-3 clobbering from the Mets, Judge felt the pressure. The Yankees held a team meeting in which he, Corey Kluber, Kyle Higashioka and Andrew Velazquez spoke about the team needing to get their swagger back. Initially, Judge declined to say who called the meeting, but now he says it was in fact him.
“Yeah I started it off, but I won’t get into details,” Judge admitted. “Whenever I call a meeting I like to leave it open-ended. Nobody wants to hear me talk. Sometimes the hardest thing for guys is getting the courage to speak in front of people. So, I like to open the door and say, ‘Here’s what’s on my mind.’ If they have something on their mind they should speak up. We’re all family here.”
Despite being shy of 30 and still in just his fifth full season with the team, Judge has become the Yankees’ de facto leader. That happened naturally, he says. The biggest man in the room is still reticent about rah-rah type speeches or getting in anyone’s face. Rather, he feels like keeping the team focused is just part of a day’s work.
“You never just one day say, ‘I’m the guy, I’m the man.’ For me, I try to lead by example,” Judge said. “If I see something on the field or in the clubhouse that needs to be addressed, I feel like that’s my role as a teammate. If you were my brother and you were messing around I’d say, ‘Hey man, knock it off.’”
Judge views the team’s flights as his time to really decompress. Oftentimes, he says, the crew won’t even turn the internet on if it’s a short flight. He sits next to Tyler Wade and usually plays rounds of the card game Casino. “We can be kids on there,” Judge says of the Yankees’ charters.
No matter how the next 10 days go, this team will surely look different in 2022. With a loaded free agent class and several trade candidates on the Yankees’ current roster, a shakeup is coming. During spring training in 2018, Judge created one of the only controversies of his career when he told Manny Machado that he’d look good in pinstripes, setting off tampering alarms that Judge says he still doesn’t quite understand.
“Man, when I did the Machado thing, that was our media people that got me in trouble,” Judge remembered. “You say something lightheartedly, and especially here, they’re going to run with it. I haven’t really looked at what the team might look like next year because I might not like it.”
That doesn’t mean he isn’t aware of some of the big game the Yankees, and other teams, will be hunting this winter.
“You hear a lot about Story, Correa, Seager, Trea Turner, all those guys. I don’t know what we’re going to do next year.”
After Wednesday’s finale with the Rangers, the Yankees fly to Toronto and Boston before circling back for the final three home games on the schedule, a series against Tampa Bay that should be ripe with playoff implications. Judge wants those crowds to be as raucous as possible, pulsating with noise that yes, includes the deafening siren that blares when a Yankee pitcher has his opponent in a two-strike count.
“Oh, I love it. I kind of pushed for it,” Judge said of the polarizing sound effect. “This is Yankee Stadium. I don’t want anybody coming in here feeling comfortable, like, ‘I can’t wait to go to New York. I can’t wait to bring my family out here for this series in New York.’ That kind of pisses me off.”
Judge said he’s never looked up his personal stats but knows that he’s having another great year, something that should make those impending free agents interested in sharing a lineup with him.
“One thing as a hitter, you’re never satisfied,” he shared. “If I go 2-for-4 people say, ‘Good game’ but it’s like, man, I got out two times! I’m trying to hit 1.000. If I go 5-for-5 on the day with maybe a walk thrown in there and a good play on defense I’ll be like, ‘Okay, we had a good day today.’”
As his impossible standards show, Judge won’t be content with himself until he achieves perfection. In the meantime, an invitation to the postseason dance might qualify as a good day.