Sep 9, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Detroit Tigers during the first inning at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Yankees' Aaron Judge Could Make Unique History

Originally posted on New York Yankees on SI
By Jack Markowski | Last updated Sep 20, 2025 3:00 PM ET

Strangely enough, New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge could make history by actually falling short of making history over the final stretch of the regular season.

Judge is currently on pace to win the first American League batting title of his career with a .327 average, which is considerably higher than the second-place mark of Athletics rookie Jacob Wilson at .317, and the Yankees' captain also happens to lead all of MLB in on-base (.452) and slugging (.673) percentage as well.

Even though he also has 48 home runs and 104 RBIs to his name, however, the chances of him winning the AL Triple Crown flew out the window a long time ago.

Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images

Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who is locked into a tight race for the league's MVP Award with Judge, has already blasted 56 homers to go alongside 118 RBIs, meaning he's well-ahead of the latter in two of the three categories for the Triple Crown.

As a result, Judge has the chance to join a unique, and exclusive, club once the regular season wraps up. If he were to launch two more homers and reach 50 for the fourth time in his career, he'd become just the second player in league history alongside Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx (1936) to reach that number of home runs, 100 RBIs and win a batting title without also taking home the Triple Crown.

"The Weird and Wild part is this: He’s two homers away from his fourth 50-homer season," Stark wrote. "Which would make him one of those rare batting champs who is also in the 50-homer, 100-RBI Club. And yet …

"He’s not going to win the Triple Crown!

"That seemed almost impossible to me. So I took a look. Turns out only one player in history has ever won a batting title, gone 50/100 and still not won a Triple Crown. And it’s so rare, it last happened 87 years ago."

"In 1938, Jimmie Foxx put up a monstrous .349/50/175 season — but “only” led the American League in average and RBIs. Hank Greenberg cranked 58 home runs that year, so no trifecta (at least not that year) for Foxx. He did win a Triple Crown in 1933, but he gets no bonus points for that in this competition."

Former Detroit Tigers superstar Miguel Cabrera (2012) is the only player to win the Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski did so for the Boston Red Sox in 1967, meaning Judge was always facing odds to accomplish that feat.

Regardless, the fact that his numbers are as impressive as they are across the board and he still doesn't have even a minuscule chance of winning a Triple Crown is rather improbable.

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