MIAMI — Aaron Judge has never watched the replay of the fifth inning of Game 5 of the last World Series, he said during a wide-ranging interview Tuesday in the New York Yankees clubhouse at LoanDepot Park.
“I’ve already experienced it,” Judge said before the Yanks closed out the spring with a 4-2 loss to the Miami Marlins. “One or two things go differently, and nobody’s talking about it. Since you lose, everyone’s talking about it.”
Actually, just one thing would have changed everything. Judge dropped a line drive to center field hit by Tommy Edman with Kiké Hernández on first base and nobody out. It was his only error of 2024 and began a domino effect that led to two other miscues and the Yankees blowing a 5-0 lead.
The Dodgers won the game, 7-6, and the series.
Was Judge distracted?
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “You’ve got to make the play. That’s what it comes down to. I just didn’t make the play. There’s nothing I can do about it now.”
Nor is there anything he can do about how the World Series finally ended, in a game where he hit his only home run of the World Series.
“Any year you don’t win it doesn’t sit very well, especially when we didn’t make the postseason the year before,” he said. “Taking it all the way to the end like that and not being the last team standing always hurts.”
The Yankees open the 2025 season against the Milwaukee Brewers Thursday at Yankee Stadium, and while Judge is a constant in the No. 2 slot in the batting order, there’s plenty of change around him. Juan Soto is gone to the New York Mets via free agency, and newcomers Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger are now hitting behind Judge.
Bellinger will play center field, with Judge moving back to right to replace Soto.
After batting .183 last postseason with three homers and nine RBIs, Judge’s struggles continued this spring. He hit .129 with a homer and five RBIs. In both cases he’s been a strikeout machine, whiffing 20 times in the playoffs and 17 times in the Grapefruit League.
He didn’t have much of a month of April last year, hitting .207 with six homers and 18 RBIs. But then he went on a tear to win his second American League MVP in the last three seasons, finishing with a .322 batting average, plus a league-leading 58 homers and 144 RBIs.
Is there any concern?
“None,” Yanks manager Aaron Boone said when asked on Tuesday.
Judge, now nearly 33, said he sees no connection between the spring and the postseason.
“Spring, it’s just about getting at bats,” he said. “Trying some things, seeing what works.”
About moving back to right field, where Judge has played 624 games, as opposed to 225 in center, he’ll just go where he’s most needed.
“He’s the ultimate team player, we all know that,” Bellinger said of Judge. “We’re all here for the end goal, and that’s to win the championship.”
This isn’t akin to the move this spring of Los Angeles Angels centerfielder Mike Trout to right. That was made to take some pressure off the left knee Trout twice had surgically repaired last season. Trout had played his entire 14-year career and 1,344 games in center.
Now that Soto has signed a 15-year, $765 million contract with the Mets, Judge is moving back.
“It’s just a natural progression. We’ve always preferred to keep Judge in right,” Boone said. “We moved him over to center out of a team need. Now, it’s more of a natural fit to have Belly go in there.”
Right field clearly is less expansive territory to cover, although as Trout said this spring, “You still have to catch the ball.”
“As far as wear and tear is concerned, it’s tough to say,” Judge said. “I won’t be sprinting to as many balls in the gap. In right field I try to back up plays as much as I can on balls hit to right-center. Let’s see how that works. But I do like a little shorter jog when I go out to right field, that’s for sure.”
