Aaron Judge has perfect response for Yankees to move on from Dodgers WS trash talk

The New York Yankees return to Los Angeles on Friday night to face the Dodgers for the first time since the 2024 World Series. Anybody remember how that ended? Oh, that's right, we're reminded almost every day by trolls. But good thing Aaron Judge knows what to say when such topics are broached.

At the very least, it's apparent the Dodgers are MLB's most hated team now, so the Yankees can hopefully hang out in the background before they eventually reclaim that title. For now, though, the Bombers have to navigate being laughed at for their most recent postseason collapse, which was worse than all of their other ones combined (even though they finally reached the Fall Classic).

Following their Game 5 choke in the Bronx, the Yankees didn't live down blowing that 5-0 lead in the fifth inning. And as the Dodgers celebrated after completing the comeback, they talked their trash, with some believing they went too far. Chris Taylor and Joe Kelly — two guys who did virtually nothing to help LA capture a ring — were the prominent figures. Kiké Hernandez, a Dodgers postseason legend, had every right to say what he wanted. Everyone else on the Dodgers, though? The MVPs and key figures? They celebrated with class.

Now, are we saying all trash talk is unfair, mean and unwarranted? No. But Kelly and Taylor viciously going NSFW when they couldn't have been further away from key moments was the definition of disrespectful. There's been much talked about it all, but at this point, nobody really cares except the media.

Judge was again asked about the select few Dodgers players' behavior following the result of the World Series, and he shut it all down in the best manner possible.

“You’re really not trying to look much into it,” Judge said. “I feel like their big-time players that played every day or played in the games, they really didn’t say too much. It was a lot of the guys who really didn’t do much. So I didn’t pay too much attention to it. They can say what they want. When it comes down to it, we didn’t win. If you win, you can say what you want. We didn’t win. We kind of just got to take it on the chin and prepare yourself for the next season.”

We're not sure there's a better response than that. The reality is that the Yankees did lose. And they did so in the worst way possible. It was tailor made for criticism, and they paid the price.

But they were already set to pay the price by way of their own fans and the media at large. They didn't need a collection of nobodies drilling the point home. Kelly and Taylor aren't even on the Dodgers anymore, so that just proves how objectively out of line they were.

It's hard to defend what the Yankees did against the Dodgers. It's also hard to argue that Kelly and Taylor didn't cross a line. It is what it is. Everybody's moved on. But Judge just put it all into perspective for anybody who wasn't able to see the big picture.