Yankees star Aaron Judge sets an obscure AL record

In Tuesday night’s nail-biting win, New York Yankees superstar outfielder Aaron Judge added another American League record to the books, sitting next to his home run record from 2022. This one, however, is more obscure.

The opposing Chicago White Sox pitching staff largely pitched around Judge, who went 0-for-2 with three walks, two of which were intentional. When intentionally walking Judge for the second time of the night, the White Sox unwittingly handed him the AL single-season record for intentional walks with 34. This dethrones Ted Williams, who was given a free base 33 times in 1957, two years after intentional walks were considered an official stat.

A milestone achievement for Aaron Judge?

To say Judge was given the Barry Bonds treatment would be an overstatement, as Bonds topped 34 (his eighth-highest mark) seven times, topping out at 120. In fact, there are six players ahead of Judge on the MLB all-time list — Bonds, Willie McCovey, Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Sammy Sosa and Adrian Gonzalez — most of whom are on the list multiple times. Judge is tied for the 16^th-highest single-season IBB total overall.

While tallying the 16^th-highest intentional walk total isn’t a resounding milestone that every player dreams of, it shows how much respect other teams have for this generation’s greatest slugger. The last time a player was intentionally walked at least 30 times in a season was Prince Fielder in 2011, drawing a free pass 32 times. The last time any player recorded an IBB number equal to or greater than Judge’s this year was in 2010, when both Pujols (38) and Gonzalez (35) notched impressive totals. With four games left in 2025, there’s still time for Judge to increase his lead in the AL, but he will fall far short of garnering the respect Bonds was granted at the plate.

Aaron Judge makes history three times in two days

After Wednesday night’s victory over the White Sox, a game in which he made history twice with two home runs, Judge is hitting .328/.455/.681 with 51 home runs. He now faces a tight race to win consecutive MVP awards.