Yankees: What’s the cause of Aaron Judge’s strikeout phenomenon?

Another 3+ strikeouts by New York Yankees star Aaron Judge. Is he hurt? Is it mechanics? Is it approach? Let’s break it down and try to find a solution.

New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge went 0-5 with 4 strikeouts on Thursday in a 19-5 beating at the hands of the Cleveland Indians. He’s now struck out 91 times in 245 at-bats, which comes out to about a 37% strikeout rate- a tick higher than last year when he K’d around 36% with 152 punch-outs in 413 at-bats.

Striking out has just been a way of life in the career of Aaron Judge, but why is it still a major issue of his? And what can he do to cut down on the punch-outs?

The reason why it seems like an even more dire situation now for Judge is that he’s not balancing the strikeouts with power numbers. His average is at a three-year-low of .257, which can be attributed to the high-volume strikeouts, but when we look at his home run (12) and RBI (32) totals, it’s a major cause for concern.

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He’s striking out so he’s not making out productively, but he’s also not providing power to counterbalance. And the power he provides is coming to center and opposite fields.

Zero home runs this year to left field and only 7 last year of his 27 total. If we look at his stance, he’s pretty open. And his two-strike approach is clearly nonexistent, so a logical assumption would be he’s late on just about everything he hits. This is why he fouls so many fastballs off. Can this be attributed to injury? I’m not sure.

In the case of mechanics, since coming to the big leagues, we’ve seen him tweak his stance in that he’s now lower than he used to be in the minors, and his bat is a little more vertical. Personally, I’d say his mechanics are fine and his approach is what needs to be fixed.

He takes way too many early count fastballs that a hitter like him should jump all over. Kris Bryant comes to mind immediately when I think about this issue because he used to be a guy who struck out like crazy, but when he started jumping on fastballs earlier in the count, he cut his punch-outs almost in-half from his rookie year (and still continues to do so to this day).

Aaron Judge hits the ball harder than anybody in baseball (hyperbole, but not really), and he’s proven he’s athletic enough to pull the ball consistently. So, either he’s still hurt now or he seriously needs a different strategy in his plate approach (maybe both).

I can’t remember seeing a game where he didn’t strikeout, and that really shouldn’t be happening for a high-.280s/low-.290s hitter with the pop he has. Pitchers know the deal that he’s a deep count hitter, so of course, they’re going to pound him with fastballs early.

The Yankees right fielder has got the tools to fix it. But he has to be healthy and he has to be more aggressive by taking over at-bats.