As 2024 comes to a close, SI is recognizing the top performer in each sport—athletes who have excelled on the field through record-breaking or championship performances, or those who have distinguished themselves through significant off-field achievements as well.

Measuring New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge against his peers for their 2024 performances is an exercise that ends quickly in his favor. It is another way of appreciating the massive historic nature of his season, considering that in the same season Shohei Ohtani and Bobby Witt Jr. chiseled their own initials into the marble halls of history.

Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers DH, became the first 50–50 player. Witt, the Kansas City Royals shortstop, became the first player at his position to go 30–30 and win a batting title. But it’s not that close. Ohtani did not play defense and trailed Judge in OPS by a whopping .123 points. Witt trailed Judge by .113 points in slugging and reached base 46 fewer times.

So great was Judge in 2024 that there are only two places to find a season quite like the one he had this year: Judge himself and baseball necrology. Names like Ruth, Hornsby and Mantle are the competition.

Judge led the major leagues in (deep breath here) home runs (58), RBIs (144), WAR (10.8), on-base percentage (.458), slugging (.701), OPS (1.159), OPS+ (223), walks (133) and times on base (322). He separated himself even from Ohtani and Witt to be SI’s choice as MLB Player of the Year. The better measurement of his season comes against all of baseball history. The unanimous AL Most Valuable Player, Judge:

  • Joined Babe Ruth (1921) as the only players to hit 58 home runs while leading MLB in RBIs and walks.
  • Posted the highest OPS+ by any righthanded hitter (min. 500 plate appearances), breaking the mark of Rogers Hornsby that had stood for 100 years.
  • Became only the third player to slug .700 while playing 100 games in center field, joining Hack Wilson (1930) and Mickey Mantle (1956).
  • Joined Ruth as the only hitters to slug 50 home runs for a third time without a connection to PEDs.
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge
Judge’s 10.8 wins above replacement set a new career high and led the majors by 1.4 WAR. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

Judge hit 52 homers as a rookie in 2017 and an American League record 62 home runs in ’22, when he won his first MVP. With four fewer homers this season, Judge set career highs in WAR, hits, RBIs, batting average, slugging, on-base percentage and total bases. Best to let Judge be the, er, judge as to which was the better season.

“I think each year I always try to improve and try to get better,” Judge said. “I reflect on where things went well, where things didn’t go well, what can we improve on that will help get the team to the finish line at the end of the year. And one thing that I reflected on from ’22 to ’23 was just, ‘I want to drive more guys in.’  The name of the game is to score more runs than your opponent.

“So that was one thing I tried to focus on a lot. Going into ’24 was—especially when you’ve got Juan Soto hitting in front of you and he’s going to be on base a lot—it's just to capitalize with guys on base and try to get the RBI count up as high as we can. We were able to do that.

“So, I would say ’24 was a little better, I think. But I think it’s just from that aspect of it was another year of learning. So, I think I'll go with ’24.”

Hitting in front of Judge, Soto led all major leaguers other than Judge in on-base percentage (.419) and times on base (299). The result was that Judge came to the plate with runners on more than ever in his career (350 of his 704 trips to the plate) and saw more pitches in the strike zone than ever (47.9%).

It seems counterintuitive that in a Ruthian kind of season Judge would find pitchers attacking him more. But not only did Soto getting on base force pitchers to deal with Judge, but also Judge forced them into the strike zone with the best plate discipline of his career (career-low 18.7% chase rate).

Judge’s goal to do more damage with runners on came to fruition. He set career highs with runners on in batting average (.338), hits (92) and OPS (1.237). There are only two players in history who came to the plate so many times with runners on base (350 times or more) and did so much damage (1.237 OPS or greater): Judge and that Ruth guy again (1921, 1924, 1926 and 1927).

When Judge won the MVP, he said, “I still see that as a team award. As much as I can sit here and say it’s called the Most Valuable Player, I still feel I wouldn’t be here without all of my teammates. I can go down that list and know that.

“The RBIs that I wouldn’t [have] without people who were in front of me getting on base, just constantly putting me in great situations … The coaching staff prepares us the right way and prepares us to go out there and then do our best … Our family is just the constant support on good days and bad. They’d be there for us, helping to turn the page.

“It’s always going to be a team award. So, I’d say the satisfaction is knowing that I can look at every single one of my teammates in that room and know that each and every single one of them impacted me in a way that put me in that position. That’s always going to be a team award in my book.”

Judge’s historic season did not carry into the postseason. He hit .184 across 14 games, including .222 in his first World Series. After playing errorless ball all year, he dropped a fly ball in the fifth inning of World Series Game 5. Five unearned runs followed as the Dodgers rallied for the clinching win. As historic seasons go, it was good ’til the last drop, an ending he figures will inform his next season.

“Any season you don't want a championship, it's going to weigh on you,” Judge said. “So, I think all it really does is just add to your fuel to get ready for the next season.”

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Aaron Judge Can Only Be Measured Against History.

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