New York Yankees: Breakout Candidates For The 2017 Season

Aaron Judge

Getting a healthy Greg Bird in the lineup will help immensely, but a healthy Bird with Aaron Judge at his greatest potential makes the lineup inexhaustible.

The catch is, however, Judge is still a prospect and still has some proving to do.

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Along with striking out in exactly half of his at-bats, the monstrous slugger set the Yankees’ record for the most strikeouts (42) within a player’s first 27 games. But my goodness gracious when he made contact…

Judge’s average exit velocity on batted balls, according to Statcast, was 96.82 m.p.h. MLB’s average for 2016 was 89.57. The average distance his batted balls traveled was 249.67 feet while the average in baseball was 218.08. His average generated velocity was 8.00 m.p.h. The league average was 1.45.

Judge’s power can be confused with the power of “The Incredible Hulk,” but rendering that into major league success is his contemporary obstacle.

Which is why this offseason is vital for him. Whatever transpires from now until he arrives in Tampa spring will have a tremendous bearing on the Yankees’ season.

If he takes this failure in his first go around in the show like he did in Triple-A, where he struggled in 2015 but adjusted flawlessly in 2016, then nothing but a candidate for the 2017 rookie of the year is expected.

Fans, which prospects/players do you expect to break through this season? Any significant ones we missed? Let us know in the comments below.

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