There is no on/off switch for Aaron Judge.
That is part of the reason why he won the American League MVP in 2022.
It is also part of the reason why he may have just put a dent in his candidacy to win it again in 2023 — even while bolstering his case for it at the same time.
Judge’s phenomenal catch at Dodger Stadium last Saturday has since landed him on the injured list with a sprained and contused right big toe from slamming it into the concrete base of the right-field wall.
It is not yet clear how long the injury will keep him out, but the expectation is at least a few weeks, if not longer.
Judge’s second IL trip of the season may cost him enough games to keep him from winning another MVP. The fewest amount of games played by a position-player MVP over the past 10 years (not including the shortened 2020 season) was Mike Trout’s 134 games in 2019.
But Judge’s catch is also what makes him an all-around star — going all-out to make the play in the eighth inning instead of allowing what would have been the tying run to reach base.
“That’s who he is,” manager Aaron Boone said as he re-watched the catch on a television inside his office at Dodger Stadium. “That’s how he plays. He needed to do that.”
It marked the second time this season Judge has hurt himself while trying to go the extra mile.
The first came when he attempted to steal third base in the second inning of what was then a 5-0 game against the Twins on April 26. His awkward head-first dive resulted in a hip strain that cost him 10 games, and though he later said he would try to slide feet-first in the future, he did not regret trying to pick up the extra base.
Though the merits of that decision can be debated, the same cannot be said for Judge putting his body on the line for Saturday’s catch.
It was as big of a game as you could find on June 3, and the play came at a vital point with the Yankees hanging on to a two-run lead against the Dodgers.
When J.D. Martinez hit the ball, Judge did not have a second to think about whether there might be some physical risk in going after it — never mind concern himself with the eight-inch concrete ledge at the bottom of the wall.
“Obviously he sacrifices his body there to make a catch — just shows the player [he is],” said Clay Holmes, who had one of the best views in the house for the catch, standing just a few feet away on the other side of the fence separating right field from the visiting bullpen.
“He always plays hard. It could have been an easy ball to just play off the wall there. But he kind of knew the importance of that catch. It was a big part of the game that really stalled their momentum.”
Judge’s power gets most of the attention, which is not all that surprising for the player whose 62 home runs in 2022 broke Roger Maris’ American League record. But he prides himself on being an all-around player, so after hitting a home run earlier in Saturday’s game, he found a way to one-up himself with some Gold Glove-caliber defense.
All things considered, Judge actually got lucky that he only injured his toe and not something worse.
Initially, it looked as if his left shoulder or head might have been most at risk, but the ball led him right to a section of the wall that was mostly chain-link fence. It provided Judge some give for his left shoulder, though he left a dent in the fencing. But had the ball led him a few feet to the side in either direction, he may not have been as fortunate.
“Luckily he hit that gate — obviously the gate’s not even supposed to open that way, it’s supposed to open the other way,” Holmes said. “But the other gate is the one that had the pole that actually went in the ground that wouldn’t have gave. So we were like, ‘Man, we’re glad he hit this side of the gate instead of the other one, because it could have been more of an impact.’ A lot of things went right.”
Bullpen catchers Collin Theroux and Rainiero Coa were sitting in chairs directly on the other side of the fence. The wall swung open and hit Coa, spilling the coffee he was holding onto himself.
Holmes had been standing by home plate of the bullpen when Martinez hit the ball before realizing it was coming right at him. So he took a few steps to the side, but still had a clear-cut vantage point for Judge’s latest feat.
“Initially, I thought there was zero chance for a catch,” Holmes said. “And then at the last second, I see Judge closing in on it at the wall. It almost caught me by surprise. … It was a crazy play, crazy catch. Obviously, he caught the ball and the gate gave way. But I feel like the whole section just rattled down there. It was such a big impact, but obviously an incredible catch.”
It will also be Judge’s last contribution to the Yankees for the immediate future. With the team in a stretch of 17 games in 22 days, it’s one of the slower portions of the schedule, though the competition — including eight games against the Red Sox and Mets — makes it hurt a little more.
But to ask Judge to change the fearless way he plays the game in hopes of avoiding future injuries?
“No. No. No,” Boone said. “He’s smart. … That’s one of the really good things the last couple of years that he’s learned, is how to play through things, how to play with things, how to get ready each and every day of the long haul of the season, when to try to protect himself a little bit.
“That’s a game-on-the-line situation. He’s going to go make that play.”
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Dillon Lawson’s Willie Calhoun fan club
One of the players who will be asked to help fill the void in Judge’s absence is Willie Calhoun.
The Yankees have long believed Calhoun can hit. For hitting coach Dillon Lawson, that belief goes back almost 10 years.
During his time as a hitting coach at Southeast Missouri State University, Lawson tried to recruit Calhoun out of Yavapai College, the junior college where Calhoun spent the 2015 season after leaving the University of Arizona. Instead, after Calhoun hit .432 with 31 home runs that year, he became a fourth-round draft pick of the Dodgers.
“The guy has hit his entire life,” Lawson said recently. “I don’t know what Little League looked like or T-ball looked like, but I bet he hit.”
After recording multi-hit efforts in four of five games from May 25 to May 30, Calhoun had cooled off a bit, entering Thursday 0-for-10 with two walks over his past four games.
But the Yankees’ confidence in the left-handed hitter has not waned, reinforced by Aaron Boone batting him leadoff for both games of Thursday’s doubleheader against the White Sox. Calhoun rewarded Boone’s faith with three total hits, including a two-run homer in the Yankees’ 6-5 loss in the opener.
“He has enough exit velo with really, really good bat-to-ball skills,” Lawson said. “It’s not a complicated answer.”
Schmidt happens
Pop quiz: Over the 30 days prior to Thursday, which Yankees pitcher had the highest Wins Above Replacement (via FanGraphs)?
That would be none other than … Clarke Schmidt, the pitcher plenty of fans wanted off the roster after the first 30 days of the season.
When the calendar flipped to May, Schmidt owned a 6.84 ERA across six starts. In seven starts since, he has posted a 3.68 ERA. Outside of a seven-run outing against the Rays on May 14, he has been a much-improved pitcher and one the Yankees sorely need to continue that way in light of Nestor Cortes landing on the IL this week due to a rotator cuff strain.
The Yankees stuck with Schmidt through his early-season struggles, in large part because they did not have a suitable replacement for him. Jhony Brito already was in the rotation for an injured Luis Severino, and Randy Vasquez was still getting his feet wet in his first month at Triple-A.
But now that Schmidt has perhaps turned the corner, it’s fair to wonder how much of that is because he was able to work through those struggles at the major league level — a chance not often afforded to young pitchers on the win-now Yankees.
“If you really believe in someone and you know that they’re good, they got good stuff and they’ve got the potential to be a really good pitcher, it’s important to kind of let it play out and try to figure it out,” catcher Kyle Higashioka said during the last road trip after Schmidt threw 5 ⅔ scoreless innings against the Mariners. “It’s important to give them time. As long as you see progress, you gotta follow up with that.”
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