Aaron Judge loses toughest out title to ex-Yankees teammate in Twins vet’s eyes 

Aaron Judge once again led the New York Yankees to victory on Thursday night, helping them secure a 6-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays to take the lead in the series. The 32-year-old continued his strong start to the season with an RBI single in the first inning to get the New York side on the board.

However, while discussing how good Judge has been this year, one former Minnesota Twins player says that ex-teammate Juan Soto is the toughest out in the game right now.

Since making his MLB debut with the Bronx Bombers in 2016, Judge has established himself as one of the best hitters of his generation. His slugging power is perhaps the best the sport has ever seen, and he has continued to improve every season.

While Judge continued to show his hitting prowess this season, former Twins star Trevor Plouffe claims he is not the toughest out in the game right now. Speaking on Thursday's episode of "Just Baseball", Plouffe explained Judge's mechanics and revealed who he believes to be the toughest out in the majors.

"I don't know if he is the toughest out in baseball. I think he can do the most damage in baseball and obviously he's probably the best hitter in baseball right now. But toughest out I'd probably give to a Juan Soto, someone who has a little bit more bat to ball than Judge," Plouffe said.

"Judge can take you deep anywhere, when I think of Judge that's what I think about. You can't go into him, you can't really go away... The reason he's able to do that is his recognition phase a couple clicks longer than anybody else's in the game," he added.

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Plouffe went on to explain that what Aaron Judge works on with his hitting coach is getting his barrel in the zone early and hitting the ball on his back foot. This gives him a split-second extra to identify the pitch because he has enough power to blast a home run off his back foot. It seems to be working for the slugger as he continues to put up slugging numbers way ahead of anyone else in the game.

Team USA manager breaks down Aaron Judge's numbers over the last calendar year

Just days after Team USA manager Mark DeRosa announced Judge would lead the team into the 2026 World Baseball Classic, he broke down Judge's recent numbers. Speaking on "MLB Network" Thursday, DeRosa said:

"The ability to work the ball the middle the other way has taken him to the next level... Last 141 games with MLB Ranks since May 5th last year, he's first in everything."

After helping the New York Yankees complete a sweep of the Kansas City Royals earlier this week, Judge put them on the front foot against the Rays on Thursday. Pulling up his defensive numbers since the start of May last year, the slugger leads the MLB in every single metric.