Yankees React to Aaron Judge News Before Twins Game

"Aaron Judge and Mookie Betts are your AL and NL Players of the Week," it said. The award is for all games spanning Sept. 8-14.

Following this news, the Yankees posted a reaction on their own social media.

"Honored after a Historic Week. Congrats [to] Aaron Judge for being named AL Player of the Week," they said.

They also posted a graphic that reads "Among Major League hitters in that span, [Judge] ranked first in HR, SLG, OPS, runs scored, total bases (24), and ranked second in OBP (first in AL)."

Aaron Judge Presented With Special Opportunity

A key aspect of Judge's hot streak is that it came against contending teams. This month, New York has faced the Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, and Boston Red Sox, who are all in playoff position entering Monday night. Additionally, the Blue Jays and Tigers occupy the top two spots in the AL.

Now, Judge and the Yankees get to face losing teams for the rest of the regular season. They start a three-game road set with the Minnesota Twins on Monday, who are 19 games under .500. After that, they'll continue their road trip against the last-place Baltimore Orioles before closing the season at home against the hapless Chicago White Sox and the Orioles again.

New York should be able to take advantage of the inferior competition, as it has the top AL wild card spot and is four games behind Toronto for first place in the AL East. On paper, Judge has no reason to slow down over this coming stretch as well.

If the slugger continues at his current pace, he could catch up to Seattle Mariners catcher and fellow AL MVP candidate Cal Raleigh in homers. The latter player currently leads baseball with 54.