There’s more home-run history on the horizon for Aaron Judge.
Judge’s homer in Saturday’s win against the Toronto Blue Jays was the 298th of his career, moving him closer to becoming the 162nd member of MLB’s 300 home run club.
When he hits No. 300, the Yankees slugger is all but certain to be the fastest to do so in multiple metrics.
Now in his ninth MLB season, Judge has played in 946 games. Ralph Kiner holds the record for the fewest games to 300 homers with 1,087.
Babe Ruth, meanwhile, boasts the fewest at-bats to 300 homers with 3,830. Judge has taken 3,400 at-bats in his career.
Judge, 32, will not, however, be close to the youngest player to reach 300. That accolade belongs to Alex Rodriguez, who was 27 years and 249 days old when he hit his 300th in 2003, his final season with the Texas Rangers before they traded him to the Yankees.
Jimmie Foxx was the second youngest at 27 years and 328 days, while Ken Griffey Jr. ranks third at 28 years and 143 days. Last year, Bryce Harper became the 28th player to reach 300 home runs by his age-30 season.
The youngest player to hit his 300th home run in a Yankees uniform was Mickey Mantle, who was 28 years and 258 days old when he achieved the feat in 1960.
Anthony Rizzo, 34, hit his 300th home run in April, making the Yankees first baseman one of 12 active players in the club. With 420 homers, Giancarlo Stanton, 34, is MLB’s active leader.
Judge was 24 when he made his MLB debut with the Yankees on Aug. 13, 2016. He famously hit a home run in his first MLB at-bat in a sign of things to come.
This season, Judge leads all MLB hitters with 41 home runs, putting him on pace for about 59. His 62 home runs in 2022 remain a single-season American League record.
The Yankees captain also leads the majors this year with 103 RBI, a .456 on-base percentage, a .701 slugging percentage and a 1.157 OPS. His .322 batting average ranks third.
The Blue Jays resorted to walking Judge intentionally four times between Saturday and Sunday, including once with the bases empty and two outs in the second inning. That marked the first time since 1972 that a player drew an intentional walk with two outs and nobody on within the first two innings of a game.
Judge’s two-run blast on Saturday was his 16th first-inning home run this season, matching a franchise record set by Ruth in 1927.
“We’re watching greatness,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after Saturday’s game. “You try not to take that for granted, what you’re seeing [No.] 99 do. For a few years, you hear a lot of the Babe, Mantle, [Lou] Gehrig, [Joe] DiMaggio, those kinds of names intertwined with a lot of things he’s doing, so try to appreciate every now and then what we have.”
Judge himself remains deferential.
“It’s surreal any time you hear any of those greats that are all around this building, all around this stadium,” he said. “It’s almost kind of make believe, some of the stuff they did, so to be mentioned in any kind of category [or] sentence as those guys, it’s quite an honor.”
Judge, the 16th captain in Yankees history, ranks seventh in franchise history in career home runs, having passed Derek Jeter (260), Jorge Posada (275) and Bernie Williams (287) this season. Up next is Rodriguez, whose 351 home runs with the Yankees give him a 53-homer cushion over Judge for sixth place.
The Yankees’ next six games are at home, beginning Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Angels, meaning Judge could reach No. 300 in the Bronx this week.