Was 2024 Aaron Judge’s Best Chance To Win a World Series?
Despite his long list of accolades and accomplishments, there's one feat Judge has yet to achieve: winning a World Series title.
Even before his stunning start to the 2025 season — including four home runs, 11 RBI, and an OPS of 1.560 in just five games — there was no denying that Aaron Judge is a generational talent.
Just two seasons removed from hitting an AL record-breaking 62 home runs in a single campaign, the New York Yankees superstar went into this season with two American League MVP wins, six All-Star selections, four Silver Slugger Awards, and two AL Hank Aaron Awards to his name.
Judge has finished three seasons with the most home runs in the AL — including his rookie season in 2017, for which he won AL Rookie of the Year — and two with the most RBI. He has also won the Roberto Clemente Award for his philanthropy work.
But although his list of awards, accolades, and accomplishments seems to be endless, there’s one achievement that Judge hasn’t managed to add: a World Series title.
After 14 years without an AL pennant, the Yankees finally broke the drought last season to advance to the World Series.
Despite ultimately losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games, the 2024 Yankees left no question that they were an incredibly strong team, so it certainly wasn’t surprising that they were the squad to open New York’s serious contention era. Still, the drought they broke was a rather bizarre one.
Over the 14-year period prior to last season, the Yankees accumulated an AL-leading .566 winning percentage, never once finishing a season below .500. They hit more home runs than any other team in MLB and advanced to the playoffs in 10 of the 14 seasons. Only one team had a better run differential.
Indeed, the Yankees were always a good team — but for 14 years, they just weren’t good enough to win an AL pennant.
And then, in 2024, they were.
The pieces finally came together well enough to win the AL Championship Series, and Judge — who finished the 2024 regular season with the most home runs (58) and RBI (144) in the majors, as well as the best OPS (1.059) — played no small part.
Still, the celebration of the team’s victory was fleeting, because just five games later, the Yankees were packing up their clubhouse without a World Series title.
Now, rather than going into 2025 with a vengeance, the Yankees are showing off a substantially less impressive squad than they boasted last season. Just mere months after being declared the best team in the American League, injuries and ending contracts have left New York without the stack of talent that got them to the top — or, at least, close to the top.
So, did the Yankees’ AL pennant win in 2024 mark the beginning of their contention era, or the end of it? As it currently stands, last year’s campaign may have been Judge’s best — and possibly last — chance to win a World Series title.
Injury Woes Hit the Yankees Early — and Hard
By Opening Day this year, the Yankees’ roster had already been ravaged by injuries. Before spring training, New York’s rotation was widely projected to be one of the best — if not the best — in the majors this year. Having now lost three starters to the dreaded injured list, the team has been left scrambling.
First, right-hander Luis Gil suffered a high-grade right lat strain at the start of March, keeping him sidelined for at least six weeks. According to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, a “best-case scenario” would have the reigning AL Rookie of the Year return to the mound in June, but he could be out longer.
Next, the Yankees confirmed on March 11 that ace Gerrit Cole had undergone Tommy John surgery after suffering a right elbow ligament tear. The right-hander had a complete UCL reconstruction with internal bracing, ruling him out for the entire 2025 season.
Most recently, right-hander Clarke Schmidt landed on the IL with right shoulder fatigue, later confirmed as rotator cuff tendinitis. While an exact timeline for his return hasn’t been provided, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman confirmed that he would be sidelined to start the season.
New York’s position players and relief pitchers certainly haven’t been immune to the injury bug, either.
Third baseman DJ LeMahieu suffered a left calf strain at the start of spring training and is likely to be out until the end of April. Designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton was diagnosed with torn tendons in both elbows, and after receiving PRP treatments, he only resumed swinging a bat on March 27.
In the bullpen, the Yankees were forced to put Scott Effross (left hamstring strain), JT Brubaker (left rib fractures), Jake Cousins (right forearm strain), Ian Hamilton (viral illness), and Clayton Beeter (right impingement) on the IL to start the season. Reliever Jonathan Loáisiga is also starting 2025 on the IL, having undergone right UCL surgery in April last year.
All up, the Yankees went into Opening Day on March 27 with 11 players from their 40-man roster on the IL — three starters, six relievers, and two position players.
While no team would be able to comfortably withstand that sort of blow, the seemingly endless string of injuries left the Yankees’ roster looking particularly gutted, largely because the team had already lost far more talent this winter than they’d managed to gain.
Are the Yankees Sinking?
Even before the Yankees were overwhelmed with injury woes, this offseason had hit them hard.
In addition to second baseman Gleyber Torres, outfielder Alex Verdugo, pitcher Clay Holmes, and a slew of other players, superstar outfielder Juan Soto became a free agent at the end of the 2024 season.
Despite the Yankees’ best efforts to re-sign the five-time Silver Slugger Award winner, Soto went on to sign with their crosstown rival, the New York Mets, on a record-breaking 15-year, $765 million contract.
Having lost Soto, the Yankees turned their attention to new priorities. Along with a smattering of smaller transactions, New York signed starter Max Fried and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt out of free agency and acquired closer Devin Williams and outfielder Cody Bellinger in trades with the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs, respectively.
Overall, the Yankees had a very busy offseason, but when they went into spring training, it still seemed they’d lost far more talent than they’d gained — and then injuries wiped them out even further.
Losing Soto was always going to be a major hit, but looking at the Yankees’ current roster, it’s hard to put them anywhere near contention conversations. The Dodgers and other big-name teams spent the winter making game-changing moves to obviously enhance their rosters before 2025, and the Yankees simply did not manage to do the same.
To be clear, the Yankees aren’t anywhere near rebuild conversations. They’re still a very good team who will almost certainly win a lot of games this season — but they were also a very good team that won a lot of games during the 14-year AL pennant drought they just broke. Being good isn’t good enough to win a World Series, and right now, the Yankees don’t even have an ace.
Judge is two seasons into the nine-year, $360 million deal he signed with the Yankees before 2023. When his contract expires at the end of 2031, he will be 39 years old, meaning he’s likely set to spend the rest of his MLB career in New York — and he may have already seen his best chance at a World Series title.
Dramatic as it may sound, it’s hard to deny that the Yankees seem to be sinking fast. That doesn’t mean the situation isn’t salvageable, but it’s clear they’ll need a lot more than Judge alone to push them back up to the top.
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