Aaron Judge takes blame for Yankees' past failures: 'It eats at me'

New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge is nothing if not a leader. A member of the media recently asked him about the Bombers' inability to get to the World Series throughout his career, and Judge took the blame for his team.

“Well, it eats at me every time we don’t finish the job,” he said, per SNY. “I take a lot of responsibility for that, being on the team. And if we don’t win it all, I feel like it’s my fault."

Judge is somewhat justified for blaming himself. While he’s had some decent playoff runs — in 2018 and 2019, specifically — his overall postseason career has been substandard. In 198 playoff plate appearances, he’s only slashed .211/.310/.462, which is far below his regular-season career line of .288/.406/.604.

However, Judge shouldn’t be so hard on himself. He’s still crushed 13 homers in 44 playoff games, which translates to almost 50 over 162 games.

The 32-year-old can’t win games by himself. He has a great sidekick in Juan Soto, but the rest of the lineup is prone to failure.

Also, if the pitching staff doesn’t come through, Judge and his offensive companions can have a great postseason and still lose.

And with every starter behind Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon stumbling into the postseason, along with an unproven closer who once led the NL in losses despite only appearing in 12 games, it may not be a surprise if the pitching lets the Yankees down.

So a lot of things have to go right for the Yankees to win a World Series in 2024. But if Judge leads by example, as he clearly wants to, maybe the rest of the team will step up and give fans what they want: a long-awaited 28th championship.