New York Yankees’ destroyer of baseballs Aaron Judge is on a tear at the moment, helping the team battle it out in a tight division race in the AL East. The Yankees are now third in ClutchPoints' MLB power rankings and Judge is a big reason why. With four home runs and seven RBI in his last five games, Judge is capable of putting New York on his back in any given game. Realizing this, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider employed a unique strategy against the slugger on Saturday.
With no one on base in the second inning of the game, the Schneider called for an intentional walk, putting Judge on first. The rationale is pretty simple. “I honestly didn’t feel like seeing him swing. He’s in a different category, I think, than anyone else in the league. He can flip the script of a game with one swing,” Schneider explained, per MLB insider Bryan Hoch on X.
Schneider had already seen what Judge could do with one swing. For the second time in two days, the Yankees superstar crushed a two-run home run in the first inning. In Saturday’s contest, Judge stepped to the plate following a single by right fielder Juan Soto. The hulking power hitter launched a 426 bomb off Blue Jays’ starter Jose Berrios to erase the Jays' early one run lead and put New York up 2-1.
In Judge’s next trip to the plate, Schneider learned his lesson and issued an extremely rare intentional walk in the first two innings of a game with no one on base. It’s such a rarity that it hadn’t happened since 1972, per ESPN’s Jorge Castillo.
Of course, Judge is a rare player. He now has an MLB best 41 home runs and 103 RBI to go along with 87 runs scored and 7.6 WAR in 110 games for the Yankees this season. The former MVP leads baseball in on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, OPS+ and total bases. Put simply, Judge is having an all-time great power-hitting season.
Blue Jays manager issues Aaron Judge a free pass out of fear
The intentional pass called for by Schneider was Judge’s seventh this season and the 55th of his career. It ultimately couldn't save the Blue Jays who lost the game 8-3.
While it’s fair to say that Judge received Barry Bonds-like treatment with the intentional walk, the Yankees’ slugger pales in comparison to Bonds’ intentional walk history. Judge tops out with 19 free passes, which he received in his 2022 MVP season when he had an MLB-best 62 home runs.
Bonds, on the other hand, was issued 120 intentional passes in 2004, when he won his fourth-consecutive MVP award and the seventh of his career. The San Francisco Giants' legend is the all-time career leader in walks, with 2.558, and intentional walks, with 688 – that’s 633 more free passes than Judge has in his career to date for those keeping track at home.
Over the course of Bonds’ 22-year career, his 162-game average for intentional passes was a ridiculous 37. The 14-time All-Star was even famously intentionally walked once with the bases loaded in 1998 against the Arizona Diamondbacks who were attempting to preserve a two-run lead.
It’s fair to say there will never be another player quite like Barry Bonds for a number of reasons. But the Yankees' Aaron Judge is striking a similar amount of fear into opposing managers with his imposing presence and incredible home run prowess. It wouldn’t be surprising to see other managers around the league opt to put him on first rather than suffer the consequences of his mighty swing.
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