Everyone knows it: Aaron Judge hasn’t won a World Series ring.
But that’s not his fault. That’s not how baseball works. Those New York Yankees teams of the ’90s, for example, weren’t just Derek Jeter. They were so many talented players coming together at once to dominate MLB.
Somehow, though, the Judge discourse took a turn toward rings culture this week. It’s the debate more often used in the NBA when comparing Michael Jordan and LeBron James, the “championships matter” discussion that leaves out so much context about two legendary careers.
MLB insider Joel Sherman pulled out that logic in talking about Judge.
“We talk about the Yankee Mount Rushmore or how high Judge could go on any list. Was he a better player than Bernie Williams? Yeah, okay, he was a better player than Bernie Williams. I’d rather have Bernie Williams’ career seven times a week, twice on Sunday. Championships matter,” Sherman said during a Sept. 16 appearance on the “Pinstripe Post” podcast.
“The guys who were at the very top of this [list] — Ruth, Gehring, DiMaggio, [Derek] Jeter, Whitey Ford, Mariano Rivera — are guys who were not only champions, but then, in October, performed. And Judge has not done that yet.”
Give us a break.
Don’t you think those Yankees of yesteryear would’ve won just as many titles, if not more, if you could travel back in time and slot Judge into Williams’ place on those rosters?
Baseball, the most individualized of all the team sports, does not result in titles just by having one transcendent star. Just ask Mike Trout, who was the best player in baseball for nearly a decade and yet never even won a playoff series with the otherwise hapless Angels.
So to minimize Judge because he doesn’t have a ring is ridiculous.
It’s even more ridiculous when you consider just how special Judge is. He has an incredibly convincing case as being the greatest right-handed hitter in the history of baseball.
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Is Aaron Judge the best right-handed hitter in MLB history?
By at least one measure, there’s no argument for anyone other than Judge.
We’ll use a stat called Adjusted OPS+. OPS is on-base plus slugging percentage. OPS+ just recalculates OPS to have a mark of 100 equal league-average in a given season. And Adjusted OPS+ accounts for ballpark factors.
In Adjusted OPS+, Judge is sixth all-time, behind five lefties.
The list goes Babe Ruth (206 Adj. OPS+), Ted Williams (191), Oscar Charleston (184), Barry Bonds (182), Lou Gehrig (179) and then Judge (178).
The next two righties on the list are Rogers Hornsby (175) and Mule Suttles (172).
Trout, for what it’s worth, is tied with Ty Cobb for 13th at 163.
Now consider for a moment the era in which Judge plays relative to Hornsby, who this list would tell us is his closest competition (you can throw Jimmie Foxx into this discussion, too, since he played in Horsnby’s era).
Baseball in Horsnby’s day wasn’t integrated. Pitchers threw much slower. There weren’t defensive shifts. Frankly, hitting was easier.
These days, hitting is hard. Incredibly hard.
And Judge hits at a level that has only previously existed in those bygone eras, and to some extent in the Steroid Era.
It’s fair to make the case that Judge’s career stats haven’t yet gotten the old-age decline that could happen if Judge hangs around baseball too long.
But if he retired today, on a rate basis, Judge would have the best argument of anyone in the sport as being the top right-handed hitter to ever play.
And while we’re in the middle of it, it’s silly to criticize Judge for not having a ring.
Just open your eyes wide every time he’s in the batter’s box and realize that this is history playing out in real time. You won’t want to look back and realize that the shiny glint of proverbial rings blinded you to this greatness.
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