Aaron Judge has become a prominent figure in Major League Baseball after winning his third American League MVP award in 2025. This achievement places him among an exclusive group of players who have earned at least three MVP honors, including Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and Barry Bonds.
While this recognition is significant, some observers argue that the MVP awards alone do not fully capture Judge’s impact as the captain of the New York Yankees. The discussion about Judge now extends beyond his awards to whether he is experiencing the greatest peak by any right-handed hitter in baseball history.
Historically, left-handed hitters have had certain advantages in baseball. Although only about 10-12% of people are left-handed, more than 40% of Hall of Fame position players batted from the left side. This is partly due to facing mostly right-handed pitchers and being closer to first base when batting.
To compare players across different eras fairly, analysts use OPS+ (on-base plus slugging percentage adjusted for league context), where 100 represents league average performance. Among right-handed hitters with at least 2,000 games played, several legends stand out. However, Aaron Judge has played fewer games so far—1,145 entering the 2026 season—but his career OPS+ stands at 179. This is currently the highest mark for any right-handed hitter with over 1,000 games played.
From 2022 through 2025, Judge posted a .311 batting average with a .439 on-base percentage and a .677 slugging percentage. His OPS+ over those four seasons was 209—meaning he performed more than twice as well as the league average hitter during that period.
In three of those years—2022 (210 OPS+), 2024 (225), and 2025 (215)—Judge qualified for the batting title while reaching or surpassing a 200 OPS+. Only Rogers Hornsby matched or exceeded that number in multiple seasons among right-handers before integration in MLB history.
Since baseball integrated in 1947, Judge is the only right-handed batter with three seasons of at least a 200 OPS+. Other notable performances include Jeff Bagwell (213 OPS+ in 1994), Frank Thomas (212 in 1994), Mark McGwire (216 in 1998), and Sammy Sosa (203 in 2001). Two of these occurred during strike-shortened seasons; two others involved players linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
Before Judge’s recent run, there were just three instances where a right-hander posted an OPS+ above 200 while hitting at least fifty home runs: Foxx in 1932 with Philadelphia Athletics; McGwire in ’98; and Sosa in ’01. Now Judge has accomplished this feat three times himself.
The debate continues about where Judge’s peak ranks historically among other greats such as Hornsby from the early twentieth century or Josh Gibson from Negro Leagues history—a player whose incomplete statistics still place him among legendary hitters—or more recent stars like Frank Thomas and Albert Pujols.
As Aaron Judge approaches another season with strong numbers and possibly another MVP candidacy ahead of him, many will continue to assess how his achievements compare within baseball history.
