It's time to discuss Aaron Judge's postseason numbers ruining his Yankees legacy

Aaron Judge has plenty of his prime right in front of him, but his subpar postseason performances continue to pile up right before New York Yankees fans' very eyes. And the disdain grows by the day, even with this team finally winning an AL Pennant in 2024.

It's reaching a point where this just might be the reality. Judge has, of course, gotten some big hits in the postseason since 2017, but the overall numbers and consistency are far below his regular season production.

Obviously, at least level-headed fans understand the playoff performance won't match the low-leverage games of August, but Judge is nowhere close to his MVP capabilities, and it continued on Saturday night in the World Series.

Judge went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. The Yankees lost 4-2 and went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position with Judge accounting for two of those failures. He is now hitting .199 in 55 career playoff games. He has struck out 85 times in 248 plate appearances. He has only 32 walks. He's belted 15 homers and driven in 31 runs, but so many of those ended up not getting the Yankees where they needed to be anyway. What should have been meaningful contributions ended up being empty ones.

Part of that is bad luck. Part of it is stat-padding. Some actually did help the Yanks. But after 55 playoff games, this is no longer a small sample size that contains aberrations we must parse through. This is a bad stretch of play. It's 1/3 of a normal baseball season. If Judge played like this for any two-month stretch of a regular season, there would be massive concern.

Aaron Judge Playoff Stats: Yankees star could be ruining legacy with franchise

The bigger issue is that Judge is looking worse. He appears to be completely lost. He has no idea what pitches are coming. He's swinging out of his shoes. He is whiffing on every single off-speed pitch. He couldn't be commanding the zone any less effectively. His dominant approach is completely gone.

Imagine how much louder this talk would be if the Yankees missed the World Series? If Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton weren't carrying the entire offense? Shohei Ohtani's injury on Saturday also limited the criticism because that was a bigger storyline.

The fact of the matter is that life in New York is different. Every performance matters, but October success trumps all. Judge can win multiple MVPs, lead by example as the Captain, and keep the Yankees in contention for years to come, as he's done since 2017, but it might not matter much in the history books with how they are written in the Bronx.

Without a World Series ring, and there being a direct link to that with his horrific uncharacteristic performances when the calendar flips, Judge's legacy might be a one-of-a-kind failure in Yankees fans' eyes, which would be heartbreaking beyond comprehension.