The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum should already have an Aaron Judge bust ready to go for whenever he is officially enshrined in Cooperstown, but the New York Yankees superstar appears far from done. He has long cleared the threshold for greatness and is now inching his way toward Pinstripes immortality.

Many will argue that he is already there after posting a .292 batting average, .410 on-base percentage, .611 slugging percentage and 1.021 OPS through his first 1,126 regular season games, but breathing rarefied air is harder to do on the Yankees than maybe any other franchise. The Bronx has been home to so many legends and transcendent talents like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. Despite his lack of playoff success, which remains an albatross of an otherwise sensational career, Judge has done enough statistically to earn a place among these icons.

The current Yankees captain smashed his 44th home run of the season and 359th overall in Tuesday's home game against the Detroit Tigers, breaking a tie with Berra and vaulting into the top-five on the franchise's all-time list, via ClutchPoints. He needs only three dingers to leap above DiMaggio.

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Where will Aaron Judge wind up in Yankees lore?

What makes the feat even more outstanding is that Judge did not debut until he was 24 years old and has missed 50 games or more in a single campaign three times (also played only 28 games in COVID-shortened 2020 season). The two-time American League MVP and seven-time All-Star has a chance to go down as one of the best to ever step into a batter's box. But he will need to stay durable and step up in October.

If Aaron Judge can finally pen a new script in the postseason and improve upon his .205/.318/.450/.768 slash line, it will be much harder to utter the word “but” when talking about his place in MLB history.

While it has always been extremely difficult to earn a spot on the Yankees Mount Rushmore, due to the championships and aura that Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle each possess, No. 99 deserves special recognition for all he has accomplished on one of the most iconic sports organizations. New York may need him to go yard again, as the team is currently tied with Detroit at time of print.