New York Yankees and the greatness of Aaron Judge

The New York Yankees captain, Aaron Judge, does not think he is the best player in baseball. Instead, Judge believes he is only MLB’s third-best player, at most.

The Yankee captain told the New York Post, “I’ve got (Mike) Trout and (Shohei) Ohtani above me. Ohtani is doing both pitching and hitting, and Trout wins an MVP every other year. I’ve got some work to do.”

Trout and Ohtani vs. the New York Yankees

I beg to differ. Mike Trout and Ohtani visited 161st and River Ave. for three games against the Yankees this week. Let’s see who ended up on top in the head-to-head match-up of arguably the three best players in the league.

Let’s start with Michael Nelson Trout performing to his standard, having five hits in 13 at-bats for six total bases. A .384 average against the Yankees is very Trout-esque. He’s a legend, yet he could only convert all those hits into just one run and zero RBI. Trout’s wRC+ was 140 for the series in the Bronx.

Now, let’s do Shohei Ohtani, who was warmly received in the Bronx, with some saying the Yankees were courting him. His Jersey was even on sale throughout the stadium shops, odd for a visiting player. Unfortunately for baseball fans, we did not see Ohtani pitch in the series, as he has been lights out in his first four starts this year.

He has been his legendary self at the plate as well this season. He is hitting .269 with four home runs so far. As for his trip to Yankee Stadium, he had only one hit and two walks in his 12 plate appearances, but that one hit was a two-run dinger. You can watch that shot in the highlight below.

He struck out three times and left New York with an abysmal slash of .083/.250/.333. Shohei Ohtani’s wRC+ was 110, slightly above average for an MLB player.