Aaron Judge Sets It Off With Opening Day Bro Bomb | His Soul Mission Is To Win Yankees Championship No. 28

LOS ANGELES – MLB’s home run king only has one thing to prove for the rest of his career: lead the Yankees to a 28th World Series championship. Judge wasted no time attacking that goal and picking up where he left off in 2022. The newly-minted Yankees captain did his part on Opening Day of the 2023 season with a first inning-homer and another RBI with two hits in a 5-0 Yankees opening day win against the San Francisco Giants.

 

“I was just trying to get on base for the guys behind me and lucky I was able to sneak one out there and get the party going,” Judge told YES Network reporters.

Judge Sets Off 2023 In 2022 Fashion 

Aaron Judge did everything for his team last year. He led all the majors in RBI with 131, on-base percentage with .425, slugging percentage with .686, and most notably, broke the AL record in home runs with 62, which helped solidify his AL MVP, along with a silver slugger award and an All-MLB first team honoree. He was also the second MLBbro Player of the Year, following our inaugural winner, Marcus Semien in 2021. 

 

 

Judge Gets The Bag: Wants Another Crack At Postseason 

All this earned him a record-breaking contract, as Judge signed a nine-year contract, worth $360 million, making him the highest paid player in MLB history. Even with a historical regular season, his postseason performance was one to forget. In nine playoff games, he batted .139, with two home runs, three RBI, and had a total of five hits. His subpar performance, along with the team getting swept by the Houston Astros in the ALCS, temporarily took some of the shine from his record-breaking regular season.  

After a very underwhelming postseason, Judge picked up right where he left off in the regular season during this spring training. In his first 31 games, he batted .368, with two home runs, seven RBI, an on-base percentage of .467, and a slugging percentage of .684. MVP numbers. 

 

World Series Or Bust

Although the AL East may be a battle this season with the Toronto Blue Jays surging, the expectations are World Series or bust with the Bronx Bombers. They’ve made the playoffs in each of the previous six seasons, making it to the AL championship in three of those years. The Yankees have not been to the World Series since they won it in 2009, and their fans are starting to get restless. They are contenders year after year, yet they can’t get over the hump to get back to the fall classic.

With Judge’s new contract almost guaranteeing that he’ll be a Yankee for life, the MLBbro is now officially the face of the franchise. The first real face of MLB’s most historic franchise since the captain, Derek Jeter. While it may be a tall ask to have the same pressure as one of MLB’s greatest players, signing a contract worth $40 million a year also means that he’s also signing to try and live up to that tall ask. 

Judge Has Overcome Early Career Injury Concerns

Earlier in his career, the concern with Judge was injuries, as he only played 242 regular season games between the 2018 and 2020 season out of a possible 384. However, in the last two seasons, he only missed a total of 19 games, showing that he has become more durable for his team.

The only thing that Judge has to do is show up in the playoffs. Throughout his entire postseason career, he’s batting .211, compared to a .284 career regular season batting average. It’s the only thing that Judge needs to do to solidify his legacy as a Yankees great. He came into Opening Day on a mission and the Yankees hope he continues to be in this Hall of Fame zone.