Yankees' Aaron Judge is chasing .400 and it's still more impressive than you think

It's May 21st, Wednesday night in the Bronx. The game is in the bottom of the 8th, and the New York Yankees trail the Texas Rangers 3-2. Jacob deGrom was in vintage form, throwing seven innings, allowing only two runs, and striking out nine. The Yankees lineup, leading the majors in most offensive categories, has looked off balance and uncomfortable all night. Also in vintage deGrom form, he exits the game with a one-run lead that is promptly endangered by the first reliever out of the bullpen. Robert Garcia is able to record two outs, but after a couple of walks, the tying run is in scoring position, and Aaron Judge is walking to the plate.

It's a scene Yankee fans recognize all too well. The opposing manager takes the long walk to the mound to call a fresh reliever specifically for Judge. Right-hander Luke Jackson enters for the Rangers, at that point having allowed zero earned runs in 15 of his last 18 appearances. On a 1-2 count, Jackson throws a fastball as middle-middle as it gets, and Judge blisters the ball into left field, plating the tying run.

"He's the big kid in little league. [Judge] needs to get called up to the next league. He's playing at such an unreal level, doing it on both sides of the ball... That's why he's our captain." - Aaron Boone on ESPN with Buster Olney

You can't make the same mistake twice to Yankees captain Aaron Judge

It's been well established that Aaron Judge is the best active hitter in Major League Baseball. The back of his baseball card is as eye-popping as anybody's, and his resume is riddled with accolades. Now, the 33-year-old is aiming for a new and mythical milestone: batting .400. He entered the weekend at .396, but vacillates over and under the mark with every passing at-bat. (With an incoming series against the Colorado Rockies, who are breaking records for all-time incompetence, there's a good chance he finishes the weekend back over .400.)

It's been 84 years since last the last time someone hit over .400, when a 22-year-old Ted Williams hit .406 for the Boston Red Sox. The closest anyone's gotten since was in 1994, when San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn was hitting .394 before the season was cut short by an MLBPA strike. Realistically, it's unlikely that Judge will finish the season over .400, but when you stack his season up against the other all-time batting average performances, Judge becomes even more impressive.

In 2025, Aaron Judge has 222 plate appearances and has faced 122 unique pitchers. Much like when the Rangers brought in a fresh arm just for him, teams know that Judge is too smart and too dangerous to let him see the same pitcher too many times. Take the clips below of Judge facing Padres starting pitcher Michael King, courtesy of MLB's Film Room.

Judge has worked a 3-0 count, and King throws a sinking fastball in the lower half of the zone. Judge cracks it to right field and the crowd rises, but he barely misses it, and flies out to right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr.

In the next at-bat, Judge illustrates why it's dangerous to let him get too many at-bats against the same pitcher.

Three innings later, Judge is facing a 2-2 count. Throughout this at-bat, King has thrown several competitive pitches that Judge fouls off. They aren't defensive swings either, Judge is only narrowly missing. King throws him another fastball in a location almost identical to the previous at-bat. It's a fastball low and in, but Judge is able to punch it all the way over the right field wall this time. (Is it a porch-job? Yes. Is it still a run? Also yes.)

These two at-bats are a great illustration of why Judge ends up seeing so many different pitchers. Although he is liable to strike out, like most modern sluggers are, pitchers can't get away with the same mistake twice when he's at the plate.

Aaron Judge isn't just one of the best now. He's proving he's one of the best ever.

When Ted Williams and Tony Gwynn had their legendary seasons, they didn't have to constantly face fresh pitchers they hadn't seen before. While Judge has seen 122 different pitchers this season, through the same number of plate appearances in their legendary seasons, Gwynn saw 109, and Williams saw only 50. Sizing up a new pitcher is hard, and it takes a few pitches to really get a good idea of someone's stuff. Judge has to do that far more than the great hitters before him, and is still performing at historic levels. When you factor in how high the average velocity has climbed in the past 30 and 80 years, Judge's sustained success is even more impressive.

The well goes deeper. Modern pitching philosophy understands that pitchers perform significantly worse when facing a lineup for the third time in a game. Hitters are fine-tuned pattern-recognition machines. Even league-average hitters are wildly talented athletes who improve as the game unfolds. In 2025, Aaron Judge has seen a pitcher for the third time 37 times. That may sound like a lot, but through the same point in the season in 1994, Tony Gwynn had seen a pitcher for the third time 58 times. Interestingly enough, in 1941 that number was 35 for Ted Williams - lower than Judge or Gwynn.

However, Ted Williams saw a pitcher for the fourth time 24 times, and 19 times for Gwynn. There were five times that Ted Williams saw a pitcher for the fifth time! Aaron Judge has not seen a pitcher for the fourth time all season, and he almost certainly won't. Once you extrapolate those numbers over the course of a full season, Aaron Judge will have faced significantly more pitchers, many of whom will enter the game specifically for him, in late-inning situations where he won't have time to be patient and see lots of pitches.

To clarify: this in no way discredits the accomplishments of Tony Gwynn or Ted Williams. The worst season of Gwynn's career, he hit .309. He notoriously infuriated Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux, who in 88 plate appearances didn't strike Gwynn out a single time. Ted Williams did scientific research and wrote a book on hitting, and lost three years of his athletic prime to World War II and then another two to the Korean War. They are each top 10 all-time in career batting average, and both of them hit well over .300 into their 40's.

Neither Gwynn nor Williams got to walk back into the dugout and watch immediate video feedback of the at-bat they just had. When Aaron Judge debuted in 2016, he struck out in 44 percent of his at-bats. In bygone eras of baseball, he'd be laughed out of the league before he got a chance to fulfill his potential. He's also the benefactor of modern sports science and surgical advancement. Also, knock on wood, he won't be conscripted into compulsory military service or have a season cut short due to labor protests.

Williams, Gwynn, and Judge are all fantastic hitters who stand tall above their competition (especially Judge.) Batting .400 is one of the most exalted milestones in baseball history - Williams did it, and Gwynn had his best shot taken away from him. With all the ways that Major League Baseball has changed, for Aaron Judge to be chasing it in 2025 is the work of a master at his craft.