A GENTLE GIANT
Yankees rookie outfielder Judge is tearing up the league at the plate, but his ego is nowhere to be found among the extraordinary statistics
More than three hours before the New York Yankees played the Astros at Minute Maid Park on Saturday, Aaron Judge was the only person in the locker room of the visitors’ clubhouse.
The Yankees were 12 days into a 16-day drag without a break. They arrived in Houston at 6 a.m. Friday because of a three-hour rain delay in Chicago the previous night. They finished trouncing the Astros 13-4 by 10:30 p.m., and players wanted to catch up on sleep with the free time.
Except for Judge, the rookie right fielder turned jaw-dropping phenom. He took the first bus from the hotel at 1 p.m. The majority of his teammates would not arrive until after 3.
“I come to the field early so I can be prepared for extra things,” he said.
As it turned out, Judge, 25, carved out the time but would not start the game. Manager Joe Girardi decided to rest him.
At 6-7 and 282 pounds, Judge stands out in a crowd. In a cavernous locker room, he and his purpose for being there are impossible to overlook. Like the difference between ordinary and extraordinary, Judge is most impressive to those around him because he commits to doing a little extra.
MVP and top rookie?
“It’s overlooked because he’s the MVP of the league right now,” said Brett Gardner, a 10year Yankees outfielder.
With 27 home runs, 62 RBIs and a .326 average, Judge has a chance to be the third rookie to win a Most Valuable Player award. Through Friday, he led the majors in homers, runs (70), walks (56), OPS (1.150) and WAR (5.1 per Fangraphs). He ranked fifth in batting average. His six stolen bases might seem insignificant, but they placed him in the top 60.
“When somebody’s playing like that,” Gardner said, “nobody pays attention to the other things.”
Judge has distracted from his understated habits with his rarefied displays. He has the power to drive one ball 495 feet and another 121 mph. He has the agility to sprint 79 feet in 4.6 seconds to make a diving catch. He has the missile range to throw out Toronto’s Jose Bautista at third base from right field.
Given his speed for his size, Judge pushes typical anatomical boundaries in baseball the way LeBron James (6-8, 250) does in basketball and J.J. Watt (6-5, 290) in football.
Nori Aoki, the 5-9 Japanese outfielder for the Astros, pitched to Judge during Friday’s blowout loss. Aoki was astonished when Judge stepped to the plate.
“It felt like he was 9 feet, 10 feet tall,” Aoki said.
Judge’s exceptional abilities are obvious. His outstanding character is a quality more difficult to quantify. Players and evaluators rarely can avoid clichés.
“As well as he’s played on the field, he’s better off the field,” Girardi said before the Yankees’ first visit to Minute Maid Park this year. “To me, that’s who Aaron Judge is.”
Girardi preferred to sum up Judge’s demeanor by comparing him to Derek Jeter.
“When Girardi said something like that, it’s incredible,” Judge said. “Jeter was a professional. In every aspect of his life and game … the way he carried himself, the way he treated people. That’s why he is one of the greats. He was a complete package. But there’s only one Derek Jeter.”
Comparisons to Jeter
Gardner said that like Jeter, Judge is impervious to negativity.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s 4-for-5 with two home runs the day before or 0-for-4 with four strikeouts; he’s in a good mood,” Gardner said. “He’s a positive influence on his teammates. That goes a long way.”
PJ Piliterre, Judge’s hitting coach with the Class A Tampa Yankees in 2014, saw that when Judge failed to drive in a runner from third in his first at-bat.
“My eyes were immediately affixed to him, to see how he was going to handle this,” Piliterre said.
Judge entered the dugout, peeled his batting gloves off and gently placed them, along with his helmet, in a cubby.
“No slamming of anything,” Piliterre said. “Within two seconds he is already cheering on the next guy at the plate.”
Judge struggled with consistent contact in the minors. Rather than lean on his physical gifts, he showed up for early cage time and frequently asked questions on how to shore up weaknesses.
“The thing that separated Aaron is he was never satisfied,” Piliterre said. “He knew he still needed to get better.”
“The more time I spent with the kid, I could tell he really wanted to be a major league player real bad,” said Al Pedrigue, Judge’s manager at Tampa. “He was one of the kids you don’t have to remind twice.”
That quality immediately reminded Pedrigue of another rising prospect: Jose Altuve. Pedrigue worked for the Astros for nine seasons, with a focus on evaluating international players when the team signed Altuve.
In 27 games in the majors last season, Judge hit .179 with four home runs but struck out 42 times in 95 plate appearances. It was a reminder of his minor league problems.
His strongman physique was not valuable when his sledgehammer swing missed so often. He studied video of Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Josh Donaldson and Miguel Cabrera. He simplified his swing. He was lunging forward and chasing bad pitches. He has bettered his selection by staying back on his hip to load his swing and assess balls a few more feet before making a decision.
The results are clear this season. His strikeout rate is down from 44 to 29 percent.
Exemplary demeanor
He does not get excited about his homers. After spring training highlight footage illustrated Judge’s power on a ball that dented a beer advertisement an estimated 500 feet away, he went out of his way to stay humble.
“The wind was blowing out,” he told media.
The same need to deflect attention from himself is what devotes him to others. He makes sure to remember names. He greets with straight posture and a smile. Then he leans his head down and turns his ear to listen to anyone of average height.
He gets that from his mom. Judge was adopted and grew up in Linden, Calif. His parents are teachers. He remembers watching his mom sacrifice her prep time between classes to help five to six high school students clamoring for assistance.
“I really admired that,” Judge said. “She never had that look of being overwhelmed or that she couldn’t handle it.
“That’s what I try to do now. Any time I’m talking with somebody or working with somebody it’s like, you’re my No. 1 priority. Nothing else matters right now.”
Judge has found comfort in minimizing the attention on him and focusing on tasks at hand. Baseball’s biggest star arrives early, answers the daily stream of questions about his greatness with a smile, and heads to the cage to hit.