Aaron Judge debuted at Yankee Stadium on a memorable afternoon in 2016. With the Yankees having honored the Core Four during a pregame ceremony, history -- recent, but already iconic -- was in the air. And the game, itself, would deliver a contemporary addition to the nostalgia.
Batting eighth on that sunny August afternoon, Judge stepped to the plate immediately after fellow debutant Tyler Austin homered in his very first plate appearance. (It’s worth remembering that Judge was slated second among the newcomers in the batting order.) Four pitches into his big league career, Judge demolished a ball that smacked off the dark-windowed restaurant beyond center field. It was an unusual way to visit Monument Park.
And all that Judge has done in the aftermath has ensured that, someday, he’ll have a permanent spot in Yankee Stadium’s most venerated real estate.
When the then-24-year-old Judge hit that very first home run of his big league career, the Yankees’ all-time home run list was astonishingly distinguished, and remarkably consistent; the top five names -- all-but-unmatched icons in a sport that reveres its legends -- were Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra. The quintet was unchanged since Aug. 7, 1957, and after Mantle passed Gehrig in 1966, even the order had remained static. It’s part of what makes Yankees history unique. All baseball players chase their franchise’s past stars in the record books. For Yankees, it’s a list of the best who have ever done it.
And now that list includes Aaron Judge.
“The last few years, with what Aaron’s done in this league, the seasons he’s had, he’s been in some rarefied air,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on Sept. 9 after Judge hit No. 359 to pass Berra and take over fifth place on the franchise’s home run ledger. Two nights later, he would hit a pair of blasts that tied him with DiMaggio for fourth. He would pass Joe D at Fenway Park the next night. “There’s been these impressive lists or names that he’s up next to. But when you see a career list like that, with this organization, and where he is right now in the center of it, it’s pretty awesome.”
At this point, fans are used to the magic that Judge can summon during any plate appearance. While never taken for granted, there’s something about it all that’s expected. “It’s going to be a 50-homer year, and we’re saying, ‘Eh, it’s kind of a down year for Judgey,’” teammate Carlos Rodón said in mid-September. “Which is crazy.”
Back in 2016, though, when Judge followed up Austin’s exciting moment with an even louder blast, it was hard to see exactly what the Yankees had in the California native. Forget that he was batting eighth in the lineup. For the next six weeks, he showed some power, sure, but also a swing that had a lot of holes that pitchers could attack. When he broke for his first offseason after debuting in the big leagues, he had just a .608 OPS, with four homers against 42 strikeouts in 84 at-bats. The .179 batting average was particularly troubling.
The next year, though, the real show began. Judge powered his way to the Home Run Derby title in Miami, then finished things off with a Rookie of the Year Award and a second-place MVP finish. The Yankees reached Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, and Judge was already one of the game’s brightest stars.
Cody Bellinger, now a Yankees teammate, was among the group pitted against Judge during the slugger’s first All-Star Week showcase. He didn’t yet know his future teammate, the guy who would break the AL single-season home run record in 2022 and then be named Yankees captain. But he had eyes, and he knew what he was looking at. “My first impression was that I had no chance of winning the Home Run Derby,” Bellinger said. “I knew that going in, and I literally just wanted to go and have some fun.
“It’s seriously unbelievable. The names that you’re seeing, these are legends. Ghosts of legends. It really is insane.”
It’s not just that Judge is carving his name into the history books, though. It’s how fast he’s doing it. Judge is in his 10th season, but the 33-year-old certainly isn’t on any kind of downswing. There isn’t a pitcher in the world less alarmed at the prospect of facing Judge today than they might have been three years ago. Having spent much of this year among the league leaders in home runs and batting average, he might be more fearsome now.
Every at-bat remains remarkable. Judge sprays the ball all over the field, deep into the bleachers in left or beyond the home bullpen in right. He’s indiscriminate in the ways that he can punish pitchers, always willing to leg out a double or go first to third in an eyeblink. He can do it all. He, alone, is a reason to tune in to any Yankees game, to show up in the Bronx, to follow the team on the road.
“It’s a big word in 2025: aura,” Boone said. “He definitely has it. He’s got a presence, obviously. Just his size is a presence, but he’s got an easy, calm, cool way about him, too. A gentle giant, but also a killer between the lines. And obviously, one of the game’s great players and one of this generation’s great players.”
Never one to readily talk up his own achievements, Judge nonetheless understands the weight of what he has already accomplished, and what he continues to chase. He knows that he’s beloved by fans, and also feels the pride that his parents and his wife, Samantha, share every time he does some new impossible thing.
“Getting a chance to see me do things like this, which I don’t think they even thought was possible, there’s really not much to say,” Judge said. “It’s kind of just, ‘Hey, we’re proud of you. Just keep being you.’”
And indeed, talk of history is for other people. Rodón knows that he’s going to have stories to tell years from now, even as his kids mostly know Judge from the fact that he starred in an episode of the animated Paw Patrol spinoff, Rubble & Crew. Judge would much rather chase the present. If 2017 is the year that baseball fans saw Judge emerge as a national figure during the Home Run Derby, the captain views it as the year his team lost in seven games to the Astros. History can wait when there are World Series parades to pursue. Passing Yogi Berra? Judge was excited to give his team the lead. That’s how things go with the big guy.
Yet Judge’s feats connect the past, the present and the future. When he moved ahead of DiMaggio with No. 362, Judge had a ways to go before he would catch Gehrig. The Iron Horse hit 493 blasts, surpassed only by Mantle’s 536 and Ruth’s 659 (55 of the Bambino’s 714 career long balls came with the Red Sox and Braves). There are a million little moments standing between Judge and the top three legends on the list, and the future is impossible to predict. But no one can deny that a career that began with a blast over Monument Park will someday end there, as well. Judge has established himself as one of the greatest Yankees of all time. When you do that, you’re naturally also one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
“It’s pretty obvious,” Rodón said. “This is one of the best ever. The numbers speak for themselves.”
Jon Schwartz is the deputy editor of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the October 2025 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.