Aaron Judge’s September Push Has Him Eyeing Another Rare Milestone

Aaron Judge’s case for greatness isn’t being built on home run totals alone. His OPS record is starting to stand alongside the most dangerous hitters the game has ever seen, according to MLB.com.

Judge has already stacked four seasons with an OPS over 1.000, and he’s well on his way to a fifth in 2025. That alone puts him in rare air. But the deeper number, OPS+, is what underlines just how much distance there is between him and the rest of the league.

OPS+ takes a player’s OPS, normalizes it across the league, adjusts for ballpark factors, and sets 100 as the league average. 

Judge entered Friday at 202 OPS+, which means he’s been 102 percent better than the average big-league hitter this year. That’s historic.

Judge is now chasing a third season with an OPS+ of 200 or higher. If he gets there, he’ll be just the second qualified hitter in the Expansion Era (since 1961) to pull that off. 

The only other name on that list? Barry Bonds, who did it six times between 1992 and 2004.

Kind of cool that Judge is now joining the hitter he watched the most as a kid growing up in Northern California, isn’t it?

In an era of pitching defined by high velocity and specialized bullpens, where hitting has struggled to keep up, Judge is producing seasons that echo one of the most feared offensive players in history.

The numbers explain why pitchers still try to work around him even when the Yankees' lineup isn’t fully healthy. They also frame why Judge, at 33, is building a resume that could eventually redefine how we talk about all-time sluggers. Just like Bonds did 

OPS is flashy, OPS+ is unforgiving, and Judge is breaking both.