On verge of 300 home runs, Aaron Judge is being treated like Barry Bonds — for good reason

The thought crossed the mind of Los Angeles Angels reliever Hans Crouse in the moments after the 92.3 mph fastball exited his hand last week and the subsequent 104.6 mph drive soared off the bat of New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge.

“What was going through my head when he made contact,” Crouse said, “was, ‘Yeah, that ball’s about 20 rows deep.’”

Crouse had reasons to despair. He had made the worst mistake any pitcher can make to any hitter. “Grooved him a fastball,” Crouse said. “I absolutely grooved him one.” And he had made that mistake against Judge, a hitter so fearsome that opposing managers have decided to capitulate and simply award him first base, rather than risk the wrath of his swing.

Unlike many of his peers this summer, Crouse received a reprieve. The baseball got hung up in the overcast sky above Yankee Stadium. “I probably was very lucky that the weather was bad,” Crouse said. “On a normal day, that ball’s out of here.” Instead, it landed in the left fielder’s glove. Crouse became a member of an increasingly exclusive club: pitchers who faced Aaron Judge this summer and emerged unscathed.

When Judge returned to the plate two innings later, Angels manager Ron Washington had seen enough. He ordered an intentional walk with two outs and the bases empty. As he did near the end of 2022, Judge has begun receiving treatment not deployed on hitters since Barry Bonds terrorized the National League 20 years ago. Since a sluggish April, Judge has re-established himself as the sport’s finest hitter and the favorite to win the American League MVP. He entered Monday leading the sport in home runs (42), RBIs (106) and OPS (1.161). He swatted his 42nd homer on Sunday against the Texas Rangers, punctuating a nine-game homestand in which he homered three times, scored nine runs and reached base 25 times.

On the doorstep of reaching 300 career home runs, Judge occupies a plane that has stood empty since Bonds’ peak. Judge entered Monday’s series against the Chicago White Sox with a 218 wRC+, a catch-all metric that measures a player’s overall offensive value. Since 1968, only three players have completed a 162-game season with a wRC+ above 200. Mark McGwire surpassed that barrier in 1998, the year he broke Roger Maris’s home run record. Bonds did it four times, from 2001 to 2004. Judge is on pace to do it a second time, besting his 2022 season in which he hit 62 homers and finished with a 209 wRC+.

“Every now and then, I try to remind myself what I’m getting to watch over there, with what he’s been able to do,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “And just the player, and the hitter, that he’s become.”

During this past homestand, Judge took 12 walks, six intentional. By the end of a series against the Toronto Blue Jays in early August, manager John Schneider opted to say the quiet part loud. Rather than pitch carefully to the outfielder, Schneider authorized three intentional walks after Judge homered in his first at-bat of the series finale.

“I honestly didn’t feel like seeing him swing,” Schneider said afterward. “He’s in a different category than anyone else in the league, to where he can just flip the script of a game with one swing.”

Judge presents a puzzle to pitchers without an easy solution. He possesses the strength to clobber mistakes, the dexterity to spoil good pitches and the discipline to ignore deceptive ones. He can be vulnerable to balls down and away, but if the pitcher’s command falters, the ball may veer directly into his wheelhouse. Earlier in the season, Judge tweaked his stance so that his front foot began closer to parallel with his back foot, an adjustment aimed at combating pitchers on the other side of the plate. Crouse described Judge’s plate coverage as “insane.” “He’s just so big,” added Angels pitcher Davis Daniel. “He can get to everything.”

He forces opponents to lower their expectations. A day after Judge collected three hits and walked three times in a doubleheader against the Angels, Daniel remarked that he felt the club had done a decent job subduing him. “When a guy’s locked in like that, you just have to limit the damage,” Daniel said. “Keep (it) in the ballpark. Keep him to singles. That’s all you can do.”

Or, you can look to the dugout to see if your manager is signaling for a free pass. The strategy tests Judge’s patience and could encase him in rust for October. Judge batted .139 in the 2022 postseason after accepting eight intentional walks in September. How many hittable offerings he receives for the rest of this season may depend on the capacity of the other hitters in the lineup, like rookie catcher Austin Wells and returning slugger Giancarlo Stanton.

“I try not to think about it,” Judge said. “I get on base. Hopefully, the guys behind me do their thing.”

One of the architects of the Bonds Treatment visited The Bronx this weekend. In 2001, when Bonds broke McGwire’s record with 73 homers, Bruce Bochy managed the San Diego Padres. Bonds took Padres pitchers deep 11 times, more than any other opponent. During the next two seasons, Bochy issued 23 intentional walks to Bonds, more than any other club each year. By 2004, the rest of the sport had caught on. Bonds accepted 120 intentional walks, surpassing his record of 68 from 2002.

“I probably should have done it a little bit more with Bonds,” Bochy said. “He hit more home runs off me than anybody.”

Now the manager of the Rangers, Bochy did not take his own advice in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. Judge singled off Nathan Eovaldi in his first at-bat. He hit another single his next time up. For his third at-bat, he came to the plate with one out and runners at first and second. Rather than walk the bases loaded for Wells, Bochy tasked reliever Brock Burke with Judge. After falling into an 0-2 count, Judge saw nine pitches, smashing the last for an RBI double.

On Sunday, after Judge supplied singles in his first two at-bats, Bochy tried a different tack. He intentionally walked Judge in the fifth inning to put two runners aboard. Stanton responded with a 114.9 mph liner into the left-field seats. Judge relished in seeing a teammate make an opponent pay for avoiding him, because “it’s always a little sweeter when you can come through in those spots,” he said. Stanton, a former home run champion in his own regard, shrugged off the perceived disrespect.

It’s a party in the Bronx! Aaron Judge goes yard! pic.twitter.com/WT4LkNroac

— MLB (@MLB) August 11, 2024

“He’s an all-time talent,” Stanton said. “If that happens, I’ve got to do what happened today — in order for it not to happen.”

Two innings later, Judge took his final at-bat of the weekend against Rangers reliever Andrew Chafin. Like Crouse a few days prior, Chafin grooved a fastball. Unlike a few days prior, the sun sparkled above the stadium. Judge extended his arms and connected with the pitch on the outer half of the plate. The baseball cleared the right-center fence and landed half a dozen rows deep.

(Photo of Aaron Judge: Adam Hunger / Getty Images)