A Judge Triple Crown?

Aaron Judge Could Add Triple Crown To MVP Trophy Shelf

By Dan Schlossberg

Note - This article was published on 6/21/25 and is used with permission

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Maybe he should be named Hank Aaron Judge.

He leads the baseball world — or at least the American League — in just about everything, including batting, slugging, on-base percentage, and a myriad of other hitting categories.

If not for Cal Raleigh, star catcher of the Seattle Mariners and sudden slugger, Judge would be leading in home runs too. By season’s end, he probably will be, since playing half his schedule with Yankee Stadium’s short right-field porch is a definite help.

While it’s true Judge would be even more devastating if he batted left-handed, he’s so strong that a plethora of his powerful pokes go to the opposite field.

At age 33, the 6-7, 282-pound California native is a lock to win his third MVP trophy in four years and second in succession. He’s also certain to go to the All-Star Game for the seventh time.

No one has won the Triple Crown since Miguel Cabrera in 2012. Before that, we have to go all the way back to Carl Yastrzemski, driving force behind Boston’s Impossible Dream pennant drive of 1967.

In the National League, nobody has won a Triple Crown since Joe Medwick of the 1937 St. Louis Cardinals.

That’s right: Aaron, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Frank Robinson, and so many others never led their league in home runs, batting average, and runs batted in simultaneously.

It seems winning a Triple Crown is harder than deciphering a butterfly ballot.

For Judge, however, his ability to make contact sets him apart from teammate Giancarlo Stanton and other long-ball practitioners. And he’s making better contact this year than ever before.

He hit a career-best .322 last year but that trailed Bobby Witt, Jr. by 10 points and was one point behind runner-up Vladimir Guerrero.

This year, he flirted with .400 for the first two months but is currently carrying an average of .366 — light-years ahead of his opposition in the batting title chase.

No wonder he usually bats second in Aaron Boone’s lineup. Getting him up in the first inning is vital to the success of the first-place team in manufacturing immediate leads.

Judge is simply the second coming of Mickey Mantle, a rare slugger who makes contact and is capable of beating the opposition in so many different ways.

And Mantle, not surprisingly, won a Triple Crown. So did earlier Yankee hero Lou Gehrig.

Judge may not have enough years left to threaten the lifetime home run records owned by Barry Bonds, who hit 762 with alleged artificial assistance, and Hank Aaron, whose 755 were achieved with sheer talent.

The strong-armed Yankees rightfielder already owns the American League single-season record of 62 and is always a threat to create a new one.

He is also a threat to carry the Yanks to their first world championship since 2009.

It will be fun to watch.

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Here's the Pitch weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, Sports Collectors Digest, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Memories & Dreams, and other outlets. He’s also the author of 43 books.