Watching Aaron Judge carry a .401 average through the first 46 games of this season can’t help but bring back memories for Paul O’Neill. Thirty-one years ago, O’Neill authored the most torrid start in Yankees history, batting .456 over the same time frame. He didn’t drop below baseball’s hallowed .400 mark until June 17, and his sizzling bat prompted scrutiny that O’Neill hadn’t experienced before.
“It was just something that I didn’t want to process mentally,” O’Neill said before a recent Subway Series game. “I just wanted to go out and play. And the easiest thing to do when you’re playing well is put your uniform on, hang around the guys you’re with and play the game.
“When you have to start talking about it to the press and to people, it just gets too many things going on in your head and that gets you away from what you were doing.”
But O’Neill thinks Judge might have an edge going forward should the megastar continue to chase batting average history. Judge, O’Neill noted, has pursued much-hyped milestones before, since he set the American League home run record by belting 62 in 2022. The kind of attention Judge would generate if he made a long run at .400 wouldn’t be unfamiliar to him, the way it was to O’Neill.
“If you look at Aaron Judge, he’s comfortable wherever he is,” O’Neill said. “Numbers-wise, whether he hit 80 home runs, he’d be comfortable, because he’s done things that have put him above everybody. I hadn’t, to that point, done anything like that.”
O’Neill, of course, is not predicting anything for Judge this season, just pointing out a potential positive should Judge stay above .400. It’s an incredibly difficult feat, obviously, over a long, tiring season.
No one has ever batted .400 or better over the course of a 162-game schedule, and the last player to do it over a 154-game slate was Ted Williams, who hit .406 in 1941. That’s 84 years ago. Tony Gwynn of the Padres finished at .394 in 110 games in the same, strike-shortened season in which O’Neill enjoyed his early burst. The Yankees’ single-season record for batting average is held by Babe Ruth, who batted .393 in 1923.
“You never want to put yourself, as a player, in a position where you feel like you didn’t have the year you wanted to have because you dropped below .400,” O’Neill said. “I mean, come on.”
O’Neill was hitting .405 when play began on June 17, 1994, but he went 0-for-4 against the Brewers and fell to .397. He finished the strike-shortened season at .359 and won his first AL batting title.
“Looking back, believe me, it’s a fun time in your life,” O’Neill said. “It’s a great time.” He smiled as he recounted how he’d just gotten a text message reminding him how far above .400 he’d been.
“In my mind, that’s nuts,” O’Nell said. “But I was just so into my routine at the time. And I truly didn’t see that it was going to end until I had to start talking about it. And I was like, ‘I can’t do this. I can’t play baseball and then talk about every little nuance that’s going on.’
“Because then nothing’s natural, right?”
In his duties as an analyst for the YES Network, O’Neill has seen Judge grow as a hitter over his career. Judge’s ability to hit the ball hard – he’s currently third in average exit velocity, according to MLB’s Statcast – is enhanced by how he’s evolved, particularly in pitch selection.
“If you look at the pitches he swings at now and the pitches he swung at right when he got to the Major Leagues, he’s a totally different hitter,” O’Neill said. “The power has always been there, but he’s a much better hitter as far as strikes, swinging at strikes. I always stress being in the same position all the time and, if you watch, nine out of 10 swings, he’s in the same spot.
“His probably greatest asset is that he doesn’t have to try to pull the ball. He can hit it out anywhere. If he sees the ball, he can hit every pitch because of the length of his arms and he’s quick enough to get the ball inside. And to hit for a high average, you have to be willing to walk. And he’s willing to walk.”
That willingness has helped Judge reach base 103 times this season; only Ruth and Mickey Mantle had seasons in which they reached base more through the first 46 games of a season. Judge has reached base in 43 of 46 games this year -- 93.5 percent.
Judge is excelling in multiple categories beyond average, too. He leads MLB in on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, hits, total bases, and intentional walks, among other stats. He’s currently on pace for 468 total bases, which would eclipse the single-season MLB record of 457 set by Ruth in 1921. Judge is also on pace for 250 hits; there have been only seven 250-hit seasons in MLB history.
Will Judge make a long run at .400? Based on baseball history, probably not. Few have. It’s fun to think about that, though, and about the place Judge has carved for himself among baseball’s greats.
“Every graphic we put up, he’s our Mickey Mantle,” O’Neill said. “He’s our Lou Gehrig. He’s our Babe Ruth. I mean, he’s doing it all and you’re doing it at a time where average hitters are hitting .240, right? (The MLB average entering play Monday was .243).
“He’s at (.401), so it just shows you how much better he is than everybody.”
Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
