When you think about the New York Yankees, you think about winning, about star power, a first class culture and about domination. This team have played in 40 World Series, winning 27 of them, so it is no wonder that they are the most famous baseball franchise around the world. In fact, they hold the record for most championship appearances and most victories by and professional team across the major North American sports leagues.
True, their last World Series title was back in 2009,but even reaching the final game is hard. The MLB regular season is a slog with teams battling it out across a huge number of games. Everyone is fighting for the same goal and the Yankees have no divine right to win anymore than the Oakland A’s or the Kansas City Royals.
Because the Yankees are such a big market team, naturally, they gain a lot of attention, similar to the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL. So, when they lose a few games or stutter slightly, what would be termed a little poor run for most teams is a full-blown crisis for the Yankees.
With that in mind, the Yankees have got off to a slow start in 2024. This has inevitably caused murmurings among the fanbase and pundits. Is everything OK? What is down to the slow start? How quickly can the team recover?
Aaron Judge not concerned by Yankees slow start
Yankees all-star Aaron Judge spent some time with the media their recent 5-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. He said there is nobody in the locker room that is overly worried about current form or their start to the season. Judge simply said that “It’s baseball” and stated the well-worn cliché about how teams from any sport experience ups and downs throughout a season.
Judge went in to the game against the Blue Jays tied for the MLB lead with 16 walks, however, he posted a disappointing .182 batting average with nine RBI, a .731 OPS and three home runs across the first 18 games of the season. Those stats weren’t really talked about when the Yankees were sitting at 12-3, but they are currently on a three game skid for the first time this season.
During the back-to-back defeats against Toronto, Judge went a combined 0-8 with four strikeouts. The impetus for the team this year has come from his teammate Juan Soto thanks to his really impressive performances to date. Soto began the most recent game with a .342 average, a .947 OPS, 15 RBI and three home runs.
That has led to some speculation that the emergence of Soto is having a negative impact on Judge. I personally feel that is nonsense, and that a player of Judge’s calibre will be delighted that his team has found another great player. Indeed, Yankees manager Aaron Boone has constantly been repeating his view that Judge will heat up very soon to silence any doubters out there.
