Yankees: Aaron Judge vows not to be a one-hit wonder

Coming off of arguably the greatest rookie season in baseball history Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has no intentions of slowing down. Just ask teammate Brett Gardner.

After the two went for a run recently at Yankees camp, Judge vowed to Gardner that he was not going to be a one-hit wonder. Gardner discussed Judge’s proclamation on teammate CC Sabathia’s Player’s Tribune podcast R2C2 with co-host Ryan Ruocco of the YES Network.

“He looks at me and says, ‘Hey man, there’s been a lot of one-hit wonders. And I’m not going to be one. ’’

Gardner added per theplayerstribune.com:

“Just hearing that, it makes you excited, because, I know for a guy like that, there’s a lot more in the tank.”

Obviously, Judge has big plans for 2018 and he expects to sustain the success he had last season because of the work he puts in to be great. Along with the newly acquired reigning NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton, all eyes will be on Judge once the regular season rolls around. Everything he does and says will be put under a microscope as we recently saw on Tuesday following his comments to Orioles’ shortstop Manny Machado.

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Judge has had a quiet spring thus far, but that shouldn’t lead Yankees fans to believe a sophomore slump is on the way. He’s still getting back into playing shape after offseason shoulder surgery and by all accounts, he says he feels great and expects to 100% by the opener in 14 days.

It’s hard to predict how Judge will follow-up his monumental rookie campaign because nobody has ever really put up those kinds of power numbers in their first big league season. 52 home runs is a record that will likely stick for a long time and as Gardner said, he thinks Judge still has a lot more to offer moving forward.

Judge is the kind of talent I’m not sure the game has ever seen before so if he were to go out and hit 60 this year I wouldn’t be shocked at all. It’s crazy to think that he could repeat or surpass his rookie season, but in this lineup with all the star power surrounding him, I expect him to come close.

Sure you can expect the high number of strikeouts to continue, but at the end of the season, the production will be there. One thing I know for sure is that Judge is no one-hit wonder and whether or not he hits 50 or 60 home runs he’s going to be among the game’s elite for years to come.

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Last year was a season myself and every other Yankees fan will never forget in large part because of Judge and what he accomplished. I just can’t wait to see what he has in store for us this year.