"Yankees fans know there’s a flip-side to No. 99’s greatness. His slumps can be monstrous, and they often occur at the worst time. It’s not Judge’s fault the Yankees are in a 16-year championship drought, but his career .236 average in the postseason is nevertheless a recurring blemish."
Here's another recurring blemish: An army of Commenters on "X," who raged agreement. Once, these people tweeted. Now, they X-crete. In this case, thousands bellowed because Judge didn't single-handedly win the World Baseball Classic.
As everybody knows, in the championship game against Venezuela, Judge went 0-4 with three Ks. As Captain of Team USA, Number 99 shoulders the largest boulder from that toothless finale. The prevailing sentiment - "same Judge as always" - brought comparisons to Alex Rodriguez (surgically forgetting 2009, when - juiced of not - A-Rod carried the Yankees to their last championship.)
People, we gotta get real...
1. Judge is the greatest Yankee slugger in our lifetimes. Better than Reggie. Better than Roger. Better than Pauly O'Neill. He goes into the conversation with Derek Jeter as the greatest Yankee... Period. At 33, he has two, maybe three, Judgeian seasons left. We better appreciate him, because - like Jete - there aint nobody gonna replace this guy. Nobody.
2. With the exception of Bryce Harper, who had done nothing in the WBC, all of Team America sucked in that final game. The five batters after Judge went a combined 0-13 with 5 Ks. The championship game was a nine-inning season, and - let's admit it - Venezuela had the bullpen. The lack of hitting was the norm, not an outlier.
3. The WBC is over. Let it go. Every hopeful scenario for the 2026 Yankees depends on Judge having another great year. That means hitting .300, blasting 50 HRs and driving in 130. If he succeeds, the Yankees will be fine. If he fails, we're cooked.
Listen: We are he luckiest fans on the face of the earth: We have Aaron Judge. Let the ghost of Jimmy Cannon rest in peace. And let the ancient one, Mr. Klapisch, deliver the rightful words, even if they come in obits.
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I admit, I'm too lazy to look up every player I would consider "great" and see how they did in the postseason. For most of them, that would be only the World Series. But Hoss--I believe it was--did point out some truly great players who didn't perform so well in the postseason.
The problem Judge has is the curse of being a Yankee. Sure, great players may press too hard, or be fighting a nagging injury, or for some other reason crater during the playoffs/Series. But Judge is a great Yankee. And great Yankees don't muff those chances when they get them, defensively or offensively. They are expected to do great things, not necessarily in every at bat or in every game, but great, memorable things that made a difference.
Judge has had a problem there. Which is a shame. But as a "great Yankee," he will always be held to that (perhaps unfairly) higher standard in every big situation. The villification comes from too-often-broken hearts.
Except for Klapisch, who may not have a heart. He's just an asshole.
For once Kay is right...
https://www.nj.com/yankees/2026/03/michael-kay-torches-yankees-aaron-judge-narrative-i-got-numbers-to-throw-at-you-baby.html
Ranger, hope you don't mind, but here's the heart of that article:
In one-run or tied games beyond the seventh inning, Judge bats .344 with a .578 slugging with runners in scoring position.
Judge ranks 21st all time in WRC+ in the playoffs with a 125 WRC+ — “Higher than Acuña, Lindor, Bregman, Betts, Tucker, Yelich, Will Smith, Turner,” Kay points out.
Since 2017, Judge ranks fifth in MLB with a 143 WRC+ in high-leverage situations, according to Kay.
“Since 2017, no one has had more tying or go-ahead home runs in the eighth inning or later,” Kay said. “No one more than Judge.”
And how many rings does he have?
For all his bluster I’ll still take Reggie on the big stage
As we inch closer and closer to opening day, I have to say - quoting the immortal Mr Solo, " I have a bad feeling about this . . . "
Judge may be the greayest slugger and many have not won rings. Judge seems to fall short in big games.
Would Reggie have the same result today facing 98+ mph constantly?
I watched that last WBC game. Judge had a really bad game at the plate. In every at bat, he had at least one pitch to hit. Didn't hit it. Couple of times, he fouled it off. At least a couple of times, took a hittable strike. He kinda looked like the pre-2025 Judge, where he was trying too hard to launch one, instead of just taking what the pitchers gave in 2025.
Anyways, that's what can happen in a one game winner take all. A mediocre lefty - and Judge sometimes looks bad against lefties - can shut you down by pitching the game of his life. Team USA starter makes a couple of mistakes, Team USA manager makes a couple of mistakes - leaving his starter in too long, and one reliever pitches like crap at the worst possible time, and it's a long walk back home.
I thought it was a good illustration of why baseball doesn't translate very well to a single elimination tournament. You can shake up the teams, throw 'em in, and pick a different winner every time. Dice, anyone?
“X-creted’.” Excellent.
First, exactly when did the WBC become the equivalent of the postseason?
Second, I agree, DickAllen that few ever surpassed Reggie Jackson as an October player. (Hence the name!)
But did we or did we not watch Judge tear through two postseason series just last fall, hitting a ton—including maybe the most impossible homer I have ever seen, to tie the one game we won against Toronto.
The truth is, Judge did not win the World Series last year—has never won it—because he did not and has not had the team around him.
Reggie Jackson played most of his career with two of the greatest teams of the 1970s, the Oakland Athletics—only non-Yankee team to EVER win three championships in a row—and the Yanks were in the World Series the year before Reggie landed in New York.
Those Yankees teams had pitching, fielding, and superb hitting beyond that of Reggie himself—not to mention a smart front office and an owner willing to do anything to win. The current Yankees? Not so much. In any of those categories.
Oh, and let's remember: Bob Klapisch was the guy who wrote AN ENTIRE BOOK telling us how Brian Cashman made the Yanks a power by bringing in Giancarlo Stanton. Yeah.
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