Yankees Legend Believes Aaron Judge Can Beat Historic Mark

There are few players out there, either present or past, who can relate as closely to what Aaron Judge is accomplishing for the New York Yankees right now than Paul O'Neill.

After beginning his career with an eight-year stint as a member of the Cincinnati Reds from 1985 to 1992, during which he won a title in 1990, O'Neill was traded to the Yankees for Roberto Kelly.

A four-time World Series champion as a critical component of the Bronx Bombers' dynasty from the late 1990s through the early 2000s, he made four All-Star teams while donning the pinstripes and had his No. 21 retired in 2022.

Over his nine years with the club, O'Neill slashed .303/.377/.492 with 185 home runs and 858 RBIs while logging 26.7 bWAR in 1,254 games.

Judge has also thrived in the Big Apple, but with no disrespect meant towards O'Neill, he's on a whole different wavelength. The 33-year-old's career OPS of 1.0212 is the third-best among qualified right-handed hitters in MLB history, and his 330 home runs are the most of any player since debuting in 2016.

The reasoning behind Judge's close connection to O'Neill, however, is their pursuits of an ever-elusive .400 batting average. The former is in the midst of his run right now with a league-best mark of .401, but the latter's dates back to the strike-shortened 1994 campaign.

That season, O'Neill was hitting .405 entering play on June 17. After seeing his average drop down to .397 with an 0-for-4 day, however, he wouldn't get it back up to that historic number by the time the year abruptly ended on Aug. 11.

O'Neill still managed to win the batting title with a .359 average, though he admitted that his quest for baseball immortality was hampered by all of the outside noise.

“It was just something that I didn’t want to process mentally,” O’Neill said, per SNY's Anthony McCarron. “I just wanted to go out and play. And the easiest thing to do when you’re playing well is put your uniform on, hang around the guys you’re with and play the game.

“When you have to start talking about it to the press and to people, it just gets too many things going on in your head and that gets you away from what you were doing.”

Hitting .400 is hard enough, as no player's done it in a full season since Ted Williams (.406) did over 143 contests in 1941, but having to face the New York media on a daily basis makes that hunt infinitely tougher.

If anyone can achieve that feat in the modern era, though, it's Judge. The two-time MVP is well on the way to earning his third this season with a 1.242 OPS and 15 home runs over 46 games.

O'Neill, who's covered Yankees games as an analyst for YES Network since 2002, has had a front row seat for Judge's entire career up to this point, and he's ready to include him on the Mount Rushmore of franchise greats as he chases .400 this year.

“Every graphic we put up, he’s our Mickey Mantle,” O’Neill said. “He’s our Lou Gehrig. He’s our Babe Ruth. I mean, he’s doing it all and you’re doing it at a time where average hitters are hitting .240, right?

“He’s at (.401), so it just shows you how much better he is than everybody.”

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