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Aaron Judge has been on an absolute tear recently. Beginning with cheating allegations in Toronto, the reigning AL MVP has been incredible as the New York Yankees continue to climb back into the AL East race. Judge has hit seven home runs in his last eight games.
He's raised his batting average to .299 and developed an incredible .299/.400/.642 slash line. His wRC+ continues to rise to 178, far and away the team lead among qualified players. His 2.1 fWAR tops the team as well.
Coming into a series finale with the Cincinnati Reds and the Bronx Bombers looking for a sweep, Judge is not in the lineup. Manager Aaron Boone has opted to give him a rest day with a travel day tomorrow to get the slugger two days off of his feet.
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It makes sense given that Judge just had an IL stint recently, so preserving him is in everyone's best interests. However, Yankees fans are shocked that their MVP isn't in the lineup with his incredible form of late.
While this is Luis Severino's first start of the season, most fans are interested in Judge's absence from the lineup. The lineup today, sans the MVP, looks like this:
- Gleyber Torres, 2B
- Anthony Rizzo, 1B
- DJ LeMahieu, 3B
- Willie Calhoun, DH
- Harrison Bader, CF
- Jake Bauers, RF
- Anthony Volpe, SS
- Isiah Kiner-Falefa, LF
- Kyle Higashioka, C
It's very likely, especially if the game remains close, that Aaron Judge gets a pinch-hit at-bat today.
Can Aaron Judge repeat as MVP?
Aaron Judge is on a similar pace as he was last year when he destroyed the competition en route to his first MVP award. Can he do it again? He is as hot as he's ever been at the time.
However, it's going to take another Herculean effort to win the award. There are other deserving players and it is always hard to take the MVP away from Shohei Ohtani.
Despite a rather mild year for Ohtani thus far, he pitches and hits. He's always an MVP favorite so it will take another historic campaign to steal it away.
