The Yankees’ Aaron Judge-Barry Bonds comp that will blow your mind

The New York Yankees brought their offense west for their series against the Athletics over Mother’s Day Weekend. They won two of the three games, scoring 29 runs along the way. Yankees captain Aaron Judge continued his insane season, going 7-14 with two homers and five RBIs in the set. Judge’s first 40 games are comparable to Barry Bonds’ in one of his elite MVP seasons. The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner crunched the numbers on Judge’s 254 Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) through 40 games.

“Barry Bonds holds the record for the best season in MLB history, achieving a 244 wRC+ in 2002,” Kirschner wrote. “He had a slash line of .370/.582/.799, totaling 46 home runs, 110 RBIs, and 198 walks. Judge’s slash line through 40 games stands at .409/.494/.779, with an MLB-leading 14 home runs. A 254 wRC+ indicates that Judge is 154 percent better than the average MLB hitter in 2025. He is competing in a different league than everyone else.”

Kirschner continues, “There’s not much else to say about Judge’s greatness. Boone struggles to describe what he’s watching from Judge. All that there is to say at this point is do not take watching him for granted. Hitting in today’s game is so difficult, and Judge consistently makes it look like it’s a video game played on the easiest mode.”

The Yankees’ captain had one of the best seasons ever by a right-handed hitter in 2024. His 1.159 OPS led all of baseball and eclipsed his 62-homer season for a career high. His OPS is even higher this year, at 1.274. Through a lot of the Yankees’ struggles to start this year, Jazz Chisholm, Austin Wells, and Anthony Volpe all slumping at various points, Judge has been the constant.

The Performance Enhancing Drug conversation looms over this stat. Judge has never been implicated in taking steroids, unlike Bonds. That makes these numbers even more ridiculous as the Yankees continue to soar.