Yankees’ Slugger Aaron Judge’s Strikeout Rate Rises In June

Why has Judge’s average dropped so drastically? One word. Strikeouts!

As a slugger, strikeouts are always going to be part of his game. But the month of June has not been as kind to him as April and May were. (All Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference).

In 28 games from April 1st to April 30th, Judge accumulated 106 at-bats and struck out 26 times. That’s a per-game average of 0.9. In 26 games from May 2nd to May 31st, Judge had 98 at-bats and 27 strikeouts for a per-game average of 1.0. Basically, April and May were identical months in the strikeout department.

From June 1st through June 17th, Judge has played 15 games and has already struck out 26 times, for a per-game average of 1.7. To put it another way, Judge’s month-by-month strikeout percentage has gone from 20.6% in April, to 23.1% in May, all the way up to 41.3% so far in June.

According to Fangraphs' website, Judge is seeing far more four-seam fastballs and changeups in June than at any other point this season. In April, 23% of all pitches Judge saw were four-seam fastballs, with an average velocity of 94.3mph. In May, those numbers were 29% and 94.9mph. Now, in June, they’re at 30% and 96mph.

Conversely, in April, Judge was seeing changeups 8.4% of the time (with an average velocity of 86.1mph). In May, those numbers were 11.8% and 86.5mph. And in June, they’re at 13.7% and 84mph. In addition, Judge is chasing far more pitches out of the strike zone in June (29.6%) compared to in April (20.3%).

So, between Judge getting caught in between on pitches and swinging at a larger percentage of pitches outside the strike zone, it’s no wonder his average has dropped so quickly and his strikeout rate has risen so dramatically.