DETROIT — Gerrit Cole has witnessed plenty of greatness from Aaron Judge during their five seasons together with the Yankees.
But earlier this week, even Cole needed a long pause to find the right words to describe what he is seeing from Judge this season in a year where offense is down across the league.
“He’s … he’s just so dominant,” Cole said Monday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field, two days before Judge became the fastest player in MLB history to hit 300 career home runs.
“I mean, it’s got to feel as if he’s always around the corner.”
For the Yankees, that is a thought of hope and unlimited potential for what he might do next. For opposing pitchers, that is the stuff of nightmares.
Cole took the latter route while trying to put Judge’s dominance in perspective. The 2022 AL Cy Young winner threw it back to his days in the National League before the universal DH, when he was always thinking, “Alright, where’s the pitcher?” At least there would be one soft spot in a lineup when the pitcher was due up, and his game plan in an inning might depend on how far away the pitcher was from batting so he could get a breather.
For a much different reason — more suffocating, less breathing — opposing pitchers are now always having to think about how many batters away Judge is, not to mention Juan Soto before him.
“I feel like he’s the type of player that commands it: Where’s Judge in the lineup?” Cole said. “If we’re in the second and we just got through the six-hole, when is he coming up again? … Because he’s just so efficient when he strikes. It’s just the complete package. It’s on-base, it’s slug, it’s clutch, it’s batting average. He’s still hitting .316 — in this league, it’s wild. It’s really wild.”
Judge was in fact batting .316 – on July 31. Twelve games of batting .500 later, he goes into Friday batting a casual .333 to go with a 1.174 OPS and 43 home runs.
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Those numbers are even more absurd given the climate of today’s game with offense more difficult to come by. As of Thursday, the league average batting average was .244 and OPS was .714.
Judge’s OPS of 1.174 was 122 points higher than the batter in second place, Soto, who is coming off belting six home runs in his past four games. Between Soto’s 1.052 OPS and 122 points lower, there are eight batters.
“That just illustrates the weight with which he hits the ball,” Cole said. “It’s a gift to watch it on a regular basis, it really is.”
Of course, Cole had a front-row view for Judge’s historic 2022 season when he broke Roger Maris’ single-season American League record by crushing 62 home runs.
Somehow, just two years later, he is putting together an even better all-around season, though Cole was not ready to call it just yet.
“We got a couple months left, so we’ll see what he can do,” he said.
“But the big dog can hit 20 [home runs] in a month,” Cole added, laughing almost incredulously before doing the ambitious math.
“If he’s at 58 or 59 by the end of this month, mid-70s is plausible. Mid-50s is plausible [through August]. I did not know he’s the fastest [to 300], but that just reinforces what I’m trying to say — the efficacy of his swing is just, he is so effective.
“It’s just homer or double — or walk. He gets like five or six singles and his average boosts like 14 points. It’s like, jeez. It’s just so deadly. So deadly.”
Cole wasn’t the only one leaving the door open for Judge to accomplish even bigger things.
After Judge swatted No. 300 on Wednesday, Soto suggested his teammate could be the one to break Barry Bonds’ all-time record of 762. For that to actually happen, Judge not only would need to remain incredibly healthy, but also likely would have to play beyond his current nine-year, $360 million deal that runs through 2031 — at which point he will be 39.
Say Judge ends up with around 55 homers this season, he would be at 312. And even if he were to average 50 per season for the duration of his current contract (a lofty ask), that still would get him to just 662.
But on Wednesday, the Yankees were content to just relish 300 — Judge’s teammates and coaches more than himself.
The Yankees were still trying to pick their jaws up off the floor from the White Sox intentionally walking Soto to get to Judge when he jumped on a 3-0 pitch for the record-breaking swing. The dugout exploded with joy. Marcus Stroman and Anthony Volpe stepped out of it to be the first to greet Judge after he crossed home plate and celebrated with Soto and Alex Verdugo, who scored on the three-run blast.
“That’s the coolest part,” Judge said of his teammates’ reaction. “These guys grind with me every single day. I know the hard work they put in, they see what I do. So that was pretty special.”
Judge was naturally measured in his reaction to the milestone, but his teammates made sure it was celebrated properly.
“It’s up to us to be excited for him and happy for him,” Austin Wells said. “I know it means a lot to him, but winning means more. For us, we feel the same way, but it’s fun to celebrate other people’s achievements for sure.”
It was an individual accomplishment — though Judge would tell you that it takes more than just him — that the team could revel in because of who did it.
“He’s just so beloved in there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He connects with everyone. Everyone looks up to him and looks to him. People are so excited to share it with him, probably even more so than he is. It’s just a testament to who he is.”
Oswald Peraza experimented with a toe tap in his swing in specific situations last year, to mixed results.
He took the plunge again last month, and it helped get him back to the big leagues.
A few weeks before being called up on Wednesday to replace the injured Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the active roster, Peraza fell into a two-strike count in a couple of at-bats at Triple-A. Cold turkey, he decided to use the toe tap so he could have a better shot at putting the ball in play — and he ended up hitting a home run each time.
“So I felt like there was something there,” Peraza said Wednesday through an interpreter. “I spoke with our hitting coach at Triple-A the next day, Trevor [Amicone], and mentioned to him, ‘Why not use this throughout the whole at-bat?’ We chatted about it, and I put it in use the next day. I felt better with it and more comfortable.”
The results showed. Peraza was hitting .317 with a 1.065 OPS and seven home runs in a 21-game stretch before the call-up.
“Ozzy’s cut some fat out of his swing and is moving much more efficiently to the ball, which has given him more options to solve a wider variety of problems that pitchers put in front of him,” Amicone said. “He’s worked extremely hard down here. He’s gone about his business very professionally. He’s shown up from Day 1 here ready to work and ready to attack the weaknesses that were exploited when he got some run the past couple years up there.”
Minor league hitting coordinator Joe Migliaccio added that the toe tap has allowed Peraza “to stay consistent and under control with his swing, showing better posture behind the baseball (elevating the ball properly), and rotating more efficiently with increased barrel accuracy and timing when he makes contact.”
It remains to be seen how much Peraza will play — for now, his best shot is to start against lefties at third base — but he will be trying to make the most of it. It’s a critical opportunity, too, considering Peraza is out of minor league options after this season.
The Yankees have some tough decisions coming in their bullpen, which does not have much flexibility — as evidenced by the team designating Enyel De Los Santos for assignment on Wednesday, just two weeks after trading for him.
Though it didn’t cost the Yankees much to land De Los Santos at the deadline (Triple-A depth outfielder Brandon Lockridge), it was still a quick hook after he struggled in five games with his new team. But it became necessary because the Yankees needed to call up Will Warren for a spot start and had just two pitchers on their entire staff who have minor league options remaining: Jake Cousins, who has become a valuable part of the bullpen, and Luis Gil, who is in uncharted territory from a workload standpoint but has handled it well so far.
Warren went back to Triple-A after a solid showing against the White Sox, and the bet here is Scott Effross — who was at Triple-A after being optioned there upon the completion of his rehab assignment to continue knocking off rust — joins the Yankees on Friday in Detroit.
But more difficult calls soon could be on the horizon. The Yankees will get an extra roster spot for a reliever on Sept. 1, but they have Lou Trivino on a rehab assignment (which he started on Wednesday), Ian Hamilton inching closer to one and Clarke Schmidt potentially starting his own next week.
Of course, those are decisions the Yankees would love to have to make because it means everyone is staying healthy.
But as the bullpen goes through a rough stretch, its lack of roster flexibility is only further handcuffing the Yankees.