96.82 mph
An Aaron Judge at his greatest potential could help the Yankees’ lineup become a well-oiled machine. The catch is, Judge still has some proving to do.
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 when he made contact…
Judge’s average exit velocity on batted balls, according to Statcast, was 96.82 mph compared to the major league average of 89.57. Incredible.
That velocity is great and all (in fact, led major league baseball), but it’s his minor league tendencies that validate that as a source of optimism.
Upon his promotion from Double-A Trenton to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2015, Judge saw his OPS drop from .866 to .680 while also watching his strikeout rate climb from 28% to 32%.
He bounced back the following year by smashing 19 home runs in just 93 games and bringing his OPS back up to an impressive .854. In the majors, his OPS dipped to .608 while he struck out a ton.
Expect the slugger to bounce back, expect him to remain streaky and expect a ton of strikeouts. You should also expect his exceptional constant: Incredible Hulk-like power.
