Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees is an MVP candidate once again. It's no longer a surprise if he's a top MVP candidate; rather, not winning it would be a shocking outcome.
This season is no different, as Judge is making his mark as one of the best right-handed hitters in MLB history. He's the most dangerous hitter in baseball and is still putting up remarkable numbers this season despite dealing with an injury.
In the final nine games of the MLB season, Judge has a chance to make some MLB history. As Jayson Stark of The Athletic highlights, Judge is two home runs shy of making some incredible and wacky MLB history.
Aaron Judge needs only two more home runs to make some wild MLB history
Judge is two home runs away from his 50th home run this season, which would be his fourth season reaching at least 50 homers. IT'd also put him at 50 home runs and at least 100 RBIs.
But he'll likely fall behind Cal Raleigh for most home runs in the division. Which, as Stark points out, combined with his league-leading batting average and RBI total, would make for some wild MLB history.
"He's not going to win the Triple Crown!" Stark writes. "That seemed almost impossible to me. So I took a look. Turns out only one player in history has ever won a batting title, gone 50/100, and still not won a Triple Crown. And it's so rare, it last happened 87 years ago."
As Stark found out, the last time a player led the league in batting average, had at least 50 home runs and 100 RBIs, and didn't win the Triple Crown was in 1938 with baseball legend and Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx.
Similar to Judge in 2025, who will fall short of Raleigh's home run total, Foxx came up short in the home run department, as Hank Greenberg hit 58 home runs that season.
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Judge has a .328 batting average, 48 home runs, and 104 RBIs on the year. While Judge is well behind Raleigh's 118 RBIs and 56 home runs this season, he can still join this elite company among players to reach 50 home runs and at least 100 RBIs without winning the Triple Crown.
Raleigh will also fall short of the Triple Crown, but what makes Judge's situation so wild is that he leads the league in batting average, and by a decent margin. He's .008 up on second-place in Jacob Wilson of the Athletics, and compared to Raleigh's .247, it's not remotely close.
If Judge hits two more home runs, along with maintaining his lead for the batting title, then Judge would join Foxx as the only players in MLB history to hit 50 home runs, have at least 100 RBIs, and lead the league in batting average without winning the Triple Crown.
The MVP race between Raleigh and Judge will be a tight one, and this statistical anomaly points to how great a season Judge is having. His offensive production is remarkable, and if it weren't for the time he missed in the second half of the year, he might be challenging for the Triple Crown.
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