The Yankees’ season was hanging by a thread. After dropping the first two games of the 2025 American League Division Series in Toronto, they trailed the Blue Jays again in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium. Down by three runs in the bottom of the fourth, the home team mounted its most significant rally of the series.
With one out, catcher Austin Wells reached on a pop fly that found its way to the ground, and center fielder Trent Grisham followed with a walk. Although it was early in the game, every one of the 47,399 fans in the Stadium could feel the gravity of the next at-bat. They were on their feet and cheering in unison.
The hottest hitter in the sport was about to step up to the plate. In an attempt to squash the Yankees’ momentum, Blue Jays skipper John Schneider quickly went to the bullpen and brought in Louis Varland, a hard-throwing right-hander capable of reaching 100 mph.
After falling behind, 0-2, Aaron Judge lined a fastball down the left-field line that clanged off the foul pole, touching off bedlam in the Bronx. Just like that, the game was tied, and the Yankees had clawed their way back into the series.
In a postseason during which Judge batted an even .500 (13-for-26) in seven games, this was his biggest moment of the year -- and a signature moment in his career. Even though the Yankees ultimately fell to Toronto in four games, Judge had given the Bronx faithful everything they could have asked for in that one swing.
“That was special just because of where we were at,” Judge said in an exclusive Yankees Magazine interview in Tampa, Fla., during Spring Training. “If we don’t win, we go home. We had to make a statement there. They brought in one of their best relief pitchers. You can easily get lost in the circumstances: two guys on base and a chance to tie the game. If I strike out, the opportunity to get back into the game is lost. I just made a point to enjoy the moment and stay aggressive and keep doing what I had been doing. Thankfully, the way the wind was blowing, it helped keep that one fair.”
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As thrilling as Judge’s home run against Toronto was, it will go down merely as an exclamation point on another record-breaking MVP season for arguably the greatest player in the sport and the most accomplished hitter of the last decade.
A couple weeks after the 2025 postseason ended, Judge took home his third American League MVP Award in the last four seasons, becoming one of just 13 players in the history of either league to win the award three or more times and just the fourth Yankee. As was the case when Judge earned the honor in 2022 and 2024, he not only put together a regular-season performance that was the most prolific of any of his contemporaries but he also, again, made history.
“Consistency is something that I’ve tried to improve on,” Judge said. “I never looked at it as trying to be one of the greatest. I just want to be a player that my team can count on and that the fans see in the lineup every time they are at the Stadium or put the TV on. I want to be consistent and stay on the field and do all of the things that help us win.”
In his most recent MVP season -- which came three years after he broke the single-season American League home run record with 62 blasts in 2022 and a year after he became the first Yankee since Mickey Mantle won the Triple Crown in 1956 to capture the award unanimously -- Judge again reached statistical heights never seen before.
In 2025, Judge won his first American League batting title with a career-high .331 average, a mark 20 points better than any other hitter in either league. His 53 home runs were the most ever by a batting champion, and only Mantle and Jimmie Foxx had previously won batting titles while hitting 50 or more homers.
While Judge’s single-season home run totals garnered more attention than any of his other statistical feats during his first nine big league seasons, his .331 average may have been his most impressive accomplishment, as well as the one for which he worked the hardest. Not only did Judge hit 86 points better than the Major League average, but he also led the Majors in on-base percentage (.457) by a whopping 58 points.
A career .294 hitter with 368 home runs heading into the 2026 season, Judge credits a recent shift in mindset with the rise in his batting average over the last four seasons.
“That’s been my main focus,” he said. “I think the biggest thing was just being honest with myself. I felt like that was one thing I was lacking, even going back to 2017. I had the home run numbers, but I wanted to be a complete hitter like Miguel Cabrera or Albert Pujols. I tried to model myself after guys like that, guys who hit .320 or .330, drove in 130 runs and hit 40 homers.”
When reflecting on Judge’s accomplishments from last season, Giancarlo Stanton lauded his close friend for his commitment to constantly improving during an era of unprecedented greatness.
“He has had some legendary seasons, which everyone in the sport has been marveling at,” Stanton said. “But he’s never satisfied. After the year he had in 2024, which, in my opinion, could not have been any more incredible, he was still looking at how he could get better. He wanted to improve his game, and he did. That’s why he’s an all-time great.”
Judge also led the Majors in OPS (1.144) and finished first in the AL in walks, total bases and runs scored. His 53 long balls trailed only Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, who hit 60, and his 114 RBIs were second most in the American League.
“I’ve played with a lot of amazing hitters throughout my career,” said Cody Bellinger, who won the 2019 National League MVP and played alongside Judge for the first time last season. “But what I saw Aaron do last year, I had never seen before. I have never seen anything even close to what he did.
“Especially when I was hitting behind him, it was incredible to watch him approach each at-bat. People see the production, but what they don’t always grasp is how differently other teams pitch to Aaron in comparison to just about every other player in the American League. Because Aaron can put runs on the board with his power and also by getting a single or double with guys on base, he gets fewer pitches to hit during each at-bat. He led the league in walks and hit more than 50 home runs and won a batting title. That is a rare accomplishment, and it’s even more impressive for a player whose reputation preceded him as much as Aaron’s did prior to last season.”
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Judge’s journey to his third MVP Award began with a scorching start in 2025. After collecting an RBI double in an Opening Day win over Milwaukee, the Yankees captain blasted three home runs in the second game of the season and followed up with his fourth home run of the campaign in the third game.
Judge remained on a feverish pace through the first full month of the season, earning AL Player of the Month honors for March/April. Heading into May, he was batting .427 with 10 home runs.
“I came into the season focused on putting our team in the best position possible, especially considering how many good teams there were in the AL East,” Judge said. “I worked really hard in Spring Training to get into a good groove and take that into the regular season. We had just lost Juan Soto to the Mets, and although we had brought in some other good players, you never know where the team is going to be or what is going to happen. I wanted to set the tone for the season and get off to a better start than I did the previous April. I wanted to be there for the team, especially after we lost such a great player.”
With Stanton out of the lineup with an injury and Bellinger struggling at the start of his pinstriped tenure, Judge continued to carry the offense in May. He hit 11 more home runs, and his batting average was still within a few points of .400 on Memorial Day. Judge won AL Player of the Month honors for his May performance, and the Yankees went 16-6 in their last 22 games of the month.
“The great thing about Aaron is that he doesn’t really care about the individual accomplishments,” said Paul Goldschmidt, the 2022 National League MVP who joined the Yankees prior to last season. “Ultimately, he wants this team to be successful, and that rubs off on everyone. People on this team follow his example from the amount of work he puts in before Spring Training to the way he challenges pitchers in every at-bat -- and I mean every at-bat. For someone who had not been around him before last year, that was something that really stood out right away. He was hitting a lot of home runs and setting himself up for another MVP season, but he was far more determined to put his team in a good place heading into the heart of the playoff race.”
As the season rolled along, Judge also reached several career landmarks, including his 350th career home run on July 12. The milestone came in his 1,088th career game, making him the fastest player in history to 350 in terms of games played.
Not long after that, Judge leapfrogged several all-time greats to move into fourth place on the Yankees’ career home runs list, surpassing Alex Rodriguez at 351, Yogi Berra at 358 and Joe DiMaggio at 361.
Although Judge is proud of any comparison to those fellow MVPs, he’s also wary of letting anything he has already done creep too deep into his thoughts.
“Those guys are legends of the game,” said Judge, who turns 34 in April. “Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra have been gone for years, but you still see people wearing their jerseys at Yankee Stadium. That shows you how important they still are to the fabric of the game.
“I don’t want to compare myself to them because their careers are over with. Their stories are already finished, and I’m in the middle of mine. If I look up and compare myself to them, I might slack off a bit, and I don’t want to do that. When my career is done and my story is completely written, then I can look back and see where I stack up against those guys. I’m on a mission. There are still a lot of things driving me, especially trying to win a World Series. That’s something that all of those guys have, and I don’t. So, I still have a lot of work to do.”
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Two weeks after playing in his seventh All-Star Game, Judge’s quest for a third MVP got a lot more difficult. While making a throw from right field, he suffered a flexor strain in his right elbow. Although the injury didn’t require surgery, it took the captain out of the lineup from July 26 through Aug. 4 and then relegated him to the designated-hitter role until September. During that time, Judge worked diligently with the team’s training staff to strengthen his throwing arm, while also maintaining a steadfast approach at the plate.
“There was some unknown about the magnitude of the injury and what was going to happen,” said Judge, who was noticeably reticent to fire balls in from the outfield, instead accepting the rare limitation. “There was some loss of strength there, and I was just trying to deal with that. I was going to doctor’s appointments and trying to figure it all out. We had a great training staff that helped speed up the recovery process, but it was definitely a struggle. There were some mechanical things that I had to change and things I had to fix.”
From the time Judge returned to the lineup on Aug. 5 through the end of August, he belted six home runs while batting .241. But he got hot again in the final month of the regular season, batting .370 with 10 long balls in September.
“When I got back into the lineup, I had to get my timing back,” Judge said. “But because of the team around me, I could still be a force in the lineup by hitting singles. Once I got my timing back to where it had been, it was time to roll.”
Stanton, who has had to make numerous comebacks from injury during his career, was as impressed with Judge’s in-season rebound as he was with anything else the captain accomplished in 2025.
“He doesn’t allow obstacles to slow him down,” Stanton said. “That’s his mentality. For a normal player, the situation he had with his elbow would have influenced their swing and given them something to fall back on if they were not playing as well. But that was just another thing that motivated Aaron.”
Judge’s late-season surge helped him eclipse the 50-home run plateau for the fourth time in his career, tying him with Ruth, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa for the most seasons with that distinction.
While that mark of repeated dominance puts Judge squarely in the conversation about the most vaunted power hitters of all time, he remains much more than a generational hitter. He has earned the respect of his teammates -- and the captaincy of the New York Yankees -- through a blend of leadership and work ethic.
“He has a consistent mindset,” Goldschmidt said. “He plays every game really hard and wants to win. When you watch the kind of work he puts in behind the scenes and the preparation he puts in, you realize why he’s been so great. He’s the most valuable player on the team and in the league.”
Stanton’s appreciation for what Judge has accomplished goes far beyond physical skills. Stanton won the National League MVP with the Marlins in 2017, hitting 59 home runs that year. If that season taught him anything, it’s that in order to outperform every other player in the league over a 162-game season, there can be virtually no letdown in focus or effort, regardless of what else is going on.
“The mental aspect is the hardest part of the game,” Stanton said. “Dealing with all aspects of life and still being able to lock in and perform every night at the highest level on the planet, that’s what separates an MVP from everyone else. When I think about what Aaron did last season, or in his other two MVP seasons, he was able to block everything else out, day in and day out, including what happened on the field the previous day. He was totally focused on the task at hand every day, and he produced consistently.”
As incredible as Judge’s body of work has been, the most unbelievable part of his story so far might be how quickly he has established himself as one of the game’s all-time greats. It may seem as though he has been dominating the sport forever, but in reality, it has been less than a decade.
“The first five years were like an introduction, trying to figure out who I was,” Judge said. “There were a lot of unknowns, and that was the coolest part of that time frame. I would say the last five years, we were getting into the heart of the story.”
As for the next five years of this story, there will probably be several more dramatic home runs, just like the one he hit against the Blue Jays that sent the home crowd into euphoria. For one of the game’s true unicorns, there might even be additional MVP Awards or batting titles. But as ever, nothing will motivate Judge more than capturing that highly coveted World Series championship.
Alfred Santasiere III is the editor-in-chief of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the 2026 New York Yankees Official Yearbook. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.