Risen

During his famed run from 1921 through 1925, Rogers Hornsby scripted a slash line that reads like some fantastical pull from another dimension:  a .474 on-base percentage and .690 slugging mark to support the inconceivable three digit number that begins it all – a .402 batting average.  Yes, the baseball universe looked and felt a lot different this century ago, but still, the Cardinals’ second baseman hit .400 across more than 3,100 trips to the plate, demolishing standards of achievement and destroying whatever beliefs the Senior Circuit pitchers and fielders possessed in their abilities to contain.  Sussing out all of the contextual elements within this broad demonstration of prowess – the home ballpark, the league environment – we can circle in on a single evaluation of Hornsby’s distance above the rest:  a 204 OPS+ across those five years.  

Since the start of the 2021 season, Aaron Judge currently holds a (hang-onto-the-roof) 196 OPS+ in 2,913 trips to the dish; a “double-take, triple-take just to make sure” level that not only can reach out and touch Hornsby’s supreme reign, but makes so many other brilliant pinnacles seem a little less extraordinary.  A 196 OPS+ over a five-year stretch, when all right-handed hitters not surnamed Judge or Hornsby in Major League history have combined to produce 14 seasons in which they came to plate at least 500 times and posted a 196 or better.   Perched within Judge’s five-year orbit:  two seasons wherein the Yankees’ slugger had 500+ plate appearances and an OPS+ of at least 200 (210 in 2022 and 225 in 2024) and a third potentially a few months away, as he resides, after last night’s contest, with a 226 in 422 plate appearances.  

It’s inside this more granular look that Judge not only stands shoulder to shoulder with Hornsby, but with the other, supremely magical names who constructed unsurpassed monuments to what can develop inside a batter’s box.  Hit from the right side, bat from the left side, always have the platoon advantage – no matter the phenotype, batters with these stacks of campaigns occupy the highest of penthouses, the most exclusive of clubs, the Olympus atop the Olympus.  Since 2021, we’ve been watching someone climb closer and closer to that peak.   

MLB History:  Multiple Seasons With 500+ Plate Appearances and a 200 (or better) OPS+

11    Babe Ruth

6      Ted Williams

6      Barry Bonds

4      Rogers Hornsby

3      Ty Cobb

3      Lou Gehrig

3      Mickey Mantle

2      Jimmie Foxx

2      Aaron Judge 

MLB History:  Consecutive Seasons With 500+ Plate Appearances and a 200 (or better) OPS+

4     Barry Bonds (2001-2004)

3     Babe Ruth (1919-1921)

3     Babe Ruth (1926-1928)

3     Babe Ruth (1930-1932)

2     Babe Ruth (1923-1924)

2     Rogers Hornsby (1924-1925)

2     Jimmie Foxx (1932-1933)

2     Ted Williams (1941-1942)

2     Ted Williams (1946-1947)

2     Mickey Mantle (1956-1957)

2     Barry Bonds (1992-1993)

Peer at those two lists and in between the oohs, aahs, whoas and wows, imagine Judge, in 2025, reaching his third (and second consecutive) season that makes the bar; picture seeing his name among these others, rising, an ascent that belts him in, unquestionably, among the elite scalers.  

From 1921-1925, a right-handed batter tore through the NL in a riveting, soaring path.

From 2021-2025, a right-handed batter tore through the AL in a riveting, soaring path.

Call it a mirror reflection, describe it as a reverberative echo, lay the one image over the other and exclaim at the match; whatever the process for connection, whatever the seamlessness of the fit, the first half of the second decade of the 21st century has witnessed a parallel to that first half of the second decade of the previous one.  That, in itself, is breathtaking to recognize.  This game elevates its gods and places a formation in amber – stilled and fixed to attract following generations and inspire a sense of otherworldliness – “Imagine seeing that.”  Amazingly, joyfully, unexpectedly, Aaron Judge had donned the accoutrements of that.

Rogers Hornsby’s 1921-1925 & Aaron Judge’s 2021-2025 (ooh, aah, whoa and wow)