Aaron Judge’s response to boos should quiet Yankees haters looking for fuel

This is just the reality in New York.V

Back in 2022, the baseball community really started to come after New York Yankees fans because they boo’ed Aaron Judge in the ALCS. Look, do we endorse booing franchise players coming off an MVP, 62-homer season? No.

But what choice do you leave the masses when you bat .063 with a .180 OPS and four strikeouts after getting swept by the Houston Astros at home? Yankees fans weren’t necessarily booing Judge directly — they were booing the result. And the result was horrendous.

The Yankees dropped Games 3 and 4 at home and scored a total of nine runs across four games. If the critics thought Judge was the lone target of the groans, then they were just looking for an argument.

In 2024, they might actually have an argument, though. Yankee Stadium booed Judge this past Saturday on his bobblehead day because of his horrific start of the season. The Yankees got shut out and lost the John Sterling game in embarrassing fashion, with Judge going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.

The man is trying to work through his early-season struggles at the moment, but man, he’s hitting .174 with a .645 OPS and 31 strikeouts in 104 plate appearances. He has just eight extra-base hits. He’s grounded into a league-leading six double plays. It doesn’t matter who you are — those kinds of numbers are not impervious to criticism in New York.