Yankees: No need to panic about Aaron Judge’s high strikeout total

Aaron Judge has had a great sophomore season up to this point, but lately, his strikeout total has seen an increase after he K’d eight times over the course of Monday’s doubleheader. Despite his recent struggles to put the ball in play, there is no need to panic about the Yankees slugger.

Most players the size of Aaron Judge tend to strike out a lot. That’s just the way it is and probably always will be. When you’re that big and tall there’s going to be some swing and miss in your game. The Yankees knew that when they drafted Judge in the first round back in 2013.

They also knew that with that swing came unlimited power and early in Judge’s career he’s combined that with elite plate discipline which has helped him become one of the most dangerous hitters in the game today.

Everyone knows about Judge’s historic rookie season a year ago where he hit 52 home runs and batted .284 with 114 RBI. However, he also struck out a major league-leading 208 times and so far this season he’s already struck out 83 times which puts him on pace for another season with well over 200 K’s.

For most players, that’s a number that’s way too big and I’m sure Judge would probably tell you that to. Although, with Judge, you can deal with all the strikeouts because of everything else he does to help his team win games. His defense is outstanding in right field and at the plate, he’s still hitting a respectable .276 and he’s going to end up walking well over 100 times and post an OBP over .400.

In most cases, when you see a player that big with all those strikeouts he’s usually a guy who’s hitting in the low .200s. Think back to the now-retired Adam Dunn (career .237 AVG) or Joey Gallo of the Rangers for example. At 6’5, 235 lbs Gallo is someone with Judge type power from the left side and the ability to hit 40 to 50 home runs, but he’s a career .203 hitter with a .315 career OBP. He finished second behind Judge with 196 K’s last year and again is on pace for over 200 this season.

Unlike Judge, Gallo doesn’t find ways to impact games at the plate when he’s not putting the ball in play. When he doesn’t hit home runs most of his at-bats are unproductive outs where he doesn’t keep the lineup moving. Judge is more than happy to take his walks and let the guys behind him drive him in. That’s how he led the league in runs scored last year with 128 and he’ll be among the leaders in that category again this season.

Yes, I know Judge has plenty of unproductive outs himself when he’s striking out over 200 times, but what separates him from the other guys is his ability to get into deep counts and make the pitchers work. His skipper Aaron Boone always talks about how fearless Judge is at taking close pitches and because of that he’ll strikeout quite a bit.

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However, that patience also helps him get into the deep counts and last season nobody in baseball worked more 3-2 counts than Judge. Whether they end in a strikeout or not he’s helping the team by making opposing pitchers work harder.

This is the case especially when a starter is on the mound because those 5-7 pitches he usually sees in an at-bat could add up to be the difference in a starter only going five innings instead of six or seven.

It also helps for the guys behind him like Giancarlo Stanton or Gary Sanchez because they can get a feel for how the pitcher is attacking hitters. That gives them a better idea of how they should approach their own at-bats.

Ignore the high strikeout total, Judge is going to be just fine

Sure Judge is going through a bad stretch right now (4 for his last 23 with 14 K’s) but he’s had multiple stretches like this so far this season, only to end up coming out of it to produce at a very high level. What causes an uproar with everybody is the high strikeout total during these funks. Monday’s doubleheader when he went 0-9 with 8’s is the perfect example of that.

Boone was smart to give Judge the night off on Tuesday after his record-setting day and he didn’t seem too worried that his struggles might continue. Per Pete Caldera of NorthJersey.com:

"“He is absolutely unflappable,” Boone said. “That’s just the nature of his at-bats, he gets so deep in counts that he’s going to have that occasional day where it’s like that, but he can just as easily put a big swing on one. I don’t think he’s really fazed by it.”"

Judge himself responded to his nightmare performance as we’ve come to expect with a smile on his face, ready to turn the page.

"“No matter what you do in the past, either good or bad, it’s not going to help you in tomorrow’s game,” Judge said. “If I went 4-for- 4 or 0-for-4, none of those at-bats are going to help me tomorrow when we’re playing Toronto, so why worry about them?“You learn from them. You learn from mistakes.”"

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That’s the perfect attitude to have and with Judge, you know what he’s saying is genuine and that his confidence isn’t shaken one bit. The strikeouts will always continue but the lack of production won’t. It’s only a matter of time before he gets back on a hot streak and produces like the superstar player he is.