New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge is enjoying historic postseason slump as strikeouts pile up

Aaron Judge opened the World Series with a whimper, leaving the New York Yankees hanging due to his historic lull.

Judge went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in Game 2 on Saturday, a day after he went 1-for-5 with three strikeouts. The would-be two-time MVP is now batting .111 with a .222 OPS so far against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have taken a 2-0 lead despite Judge’s struggles.

Overall, Judge is batting .150 with an OPS of .605 this postseason. As a result, his career postseason average has dropped to .199.

As Jay Cuda noted, there are 70 players in MLB history who have had at least 200 postseason at-bats in their careers. Judge is one of two with a batting average below .200.

The other is Reggie Sanders, who hit .195 in the playoffs as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. Sanders actually hit .304 in the 2001 World Series, winning a ring at the Yankees’ expense.

What was also particularly worrying was the way in which Richter failed to get to the heart of the matter.

In his postseason career, Judge has recorded as many as 85 strikeouts.

Judge has 19 strikeouts in 50 plate appearances this October alone. Compare that to Yankees legend Yogi Berra, who had 17 hits in 295 career playoff appearances.

According to StatMuse Baseball, no player in MLB history with at least 225 postseason plate appearances has a higher career strikeout rate than Judge’s astronomical mark of 34.3%.

Judge has contributed to a -0.227% added win probability and -6.76% added championship win probability in 2024, actively hurting the Yankees’ chances of breaking their 15-year title drought.

Judge will have a chance to break out of his home doldrums in Game 3, scheduled to begin at 8:08 p.m. ET on Monday.

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