Yankees' Aaron Judge praised as 'All-Star person'

New York Yankees starting pitcher Nestor Cortes Jr. named Aaron Judge "our captain" this past fall. There's more information on what Cortes meant. 

MLB insider Joel Sherman of the New York Post recently spoke with members of the Yankees about Judge's 2022 Most Valuable Player campaign which included the slugger dealing with the stress of trying to set a new American League single-season record of at least 62 home runs. 

"I will remember being up close for an All-Star offensive player, yeah, but I will remember more being up close for an All-Star person," Yankees third-base coach Luis Rojas explained. 

Catcher Kyle Higashioka praised Judge for creating bonding moments for teammates throughout the year. 

"I don’t recall ever being part of a season where we got together as a team so often and 90% of the time there was Judge setting it up, dinners, concerts," Higashioka said. 

Judge tested free agency following the World Series but returned to New York via a nine-year, $360 million deal. It sounds like anointing him the 16th captain in the history of the Yankees in December was an easy decision. 

"The first question people ask me when they find out what I do is: 'What’s Judge really like?' And he’s the greatest guy ever," Yankees relief pitcher Michael King remarked. "We’ll be driving in a car with him through a neighborhood and he rolls his window down because kids are playing outside. Just to say hi to some kids and I think, 'You’re a superstar, you don’t need to do that.' But he just wants to make the kids' day." 

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole recently admitted he was "relieved" when he learned Judge was staying put following a brief scare regarding a report about the four-time All-Star selection joining the San Francisco Giants that turned out to be incorrect. 

While Cole and company obviously would've missed Judge's offensive production in the lineup, it's clear the 30-year-old means much more to the World Series hopefuls than some outsiders realized. 

"For me, personally, I can’t think of a better teammate that I’ve had," Higashioka added.