CC Sabathia drops honest Aaron Judge Yankee ‘captain’ admission

Perhaps the most famous was Lou Gehrig,  who served in that role from 1935 through 1939. Babe Ruth actually served as captain — but only for five days in 1922. The Babe’s off-the-field excesses are widely known, and that may be the primary reason he had such a short run as the New York captain.

Other notable Yankee captains include Thurman Munson, Willie Randolph, Ron Guidry, Don Mattingly and Derek Jeter. Aaron Judge has followed Jeter as the Yankees captain. Judge has been with the Yankees since the 2016 season and he was named captain after the 2022 season.

Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia was with the Yankees for 11 of his 19 seasons. He joined the Yankees in 2009 and he stayed with them until he retired after the 2019 season. He played with Judge for four seasons and knew the slugger would eventually become the team leader and helped prepare him for his role of captain.

Sabathia believes Judge is doing a good job in his role as the tone setter for the current team. “I see the clubhouse now and it looks pretty good to me,” Sabathia said. “Judgie is doing a good job as captain and I played a hand in that.”

Yankees are hoping to find some consistency in the second half 

The Yankees led the American League East for the majority of the first half of the season. However, they surrendered first place to the Toronto Blue early in July when they were swept in a four-game series against the Blue Jays in Toronto.

As the Yankees begin the second half of the season, they are 2.0 games behind the Blue Jays and they are in second place in the division. They have suffered some key injuries to their pitching staff and despite having tremendous power in the lineup, the offense has been somewhat inconsistent.

None of this can be pinned on Judge, because the Yankee captain is having a dominant season.

Judge is the most productive hitter in the American League. He begins the second half of the season while slashing .355/.462/.733 with 35 home runs and 81 runs batted in. He has scored a league-leading 85 runs and he leads the league with 125 hits.

If the Yankees are going to regain first place, it seems clear they will be depending on Judge for leadership and tremendous offensive production during the remainder of the season.