Yankees' Aaron Judge joins Mantle, DiMaggio, Berra in exclusive New York franchise history

Billy Heyen

Yankees' Aaron Judge joins Mantle, DiMaggio, Berra in exclusive New York franchise history image

In the greatest franchise in MLB history, Aaron Judge resides among the greats.

There have been few players in the storied narrative of the New York Yankees like Judge.

Sure, he's different just by being 6-foot-7 and 282 pounds. But he's also simply one of the best right-handed hitters of all time.

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On Thursday night, that earned Judge more recognition. For the third time, he was named AL MVP.

With that honor, Judge is the fourth Yankees player to have three MVP awards in a career. The other three: Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Joe DiMaggio.

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There is a key caveat here, of course.

The MVP wasn't instituted until 1931. That chopped off a lot of key years for Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. They surely would've gotten close to three apiece if the award existed for their entire careers.

Still, it's great company for Judge to keep.

The one thing he's missing is a ring. But as far as what Judge has done personally, he's right up there with the best to ever don the pinstripes.

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Senior Editor