Aaron Judge and Juan Soto set to join Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as second pair of MLB players with historic statistic
Aaron Judge and Juan Soto are two of the best hitters in the MLB, and the pair is putting on quite a show in their first year as teammates for the New York Yankees. Both of them are premier MVP candidates this season and have been the driving force behind the Yankees challenging for the American League East.
On Wednesday evening, YES Network shared a post on Instagram to describe the historic performances from Aaron Judge and Juan Soto during the 2024 campaign.
Judge and Soto both have an OPS+ above 185 this year, which puts them at par with two of the greatest Yankees sluggers. They are in running to be the only teammates in MLB history to achieve the feat in a season since Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth first accomplished it just over a century ago. Gehrig and Ruth spent 12 seasons together as teammates for the Yankees between 1923-34, and they had six seasons in which both finished with over 185 OPS+.
Incidentally, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are both ranked inside the top 3 all-time for career OPS, with Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams sandwiched between them. Aaron Judge(1.005) leads that particular statistic among active players, with Mike Trout being the only other name who is above Juan Soto in this list.
Aaron Judge and Juan Soto are both top contenders for AL MVP
Meanwhile, Aaron Judge is arguably enjoying the best season of his career, even though he is unlikely to breach the AL single-season home run record(62) he broke in 2022. He is setting the pace in the league for every slugging category right now, but his teammate Juan Soto is not far off.
At the moment, Judge heads the AL charts for on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, walks, total bases, home runs, and bWAR, while Soto ranks among the top three in each of those categories. The two Yankees superstars are therefore the frontrunners in the AL MVP race, along with Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals.
However, Judge definitely appears to be the standout choice at the moment to win his second MVP award, with his first coming in 2022. Soto has not earned one yet, but the 25-year-old will certainly finish inside the top-five spots for the third time in his career.