Aaron Judge is the newest member of the 300 home run club.
Wednesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago (GameTracker), the New York Yankees star took Chicago White Sox right-hander Chad Kuhl deep for his 300th career home run, and in doing so became the fastest to 300 homers in history. It’s not close either. Judge hit his 300th homer in his 955th career game. The previous record was held by Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, who hit his 300th home run in his 1,087th game.
Here is Judge’s milestone blast, which came after an intentional walk to Juan Soto:
Ryan Howard (1,093) and Juan Gonzalez (1,096) are the only players to reach 300 home runs in fewer than 1,100 games. Judge is also the fastest to 300 home runs in terms of at-bats. He hit his 300th in his 3,431st career at-bat. The previous record was held by Babe Ruth, who hit his 300th homer in his 3,830th at-bat. Again, Judge didn’t just set the record. He shattered it. As well, Judge joins Mark McGwire as the only players to reach 300 home runs before reaching 1,000 hits.
“If it comes with a win, it’ll mean something,” Judge said last week about approaching 300 home runs (via New York Post). “It’s not what we play for. I just want to put us in a good position.”
Despite a sluggish April, Judge is potentially in position to challenge his own American League single-season home run record. His 300th career home run was also his 43rd homer in 122 team games this season. In 2022, the year he set the AL record with 62 home runs, Judge hit 46 homers through the team’s first 122 games.
Judge is currently on pace for 57 home runs and all it takes is one hot streak to bump him up to a 62-homer pace. Earlier this year, Judge had stretches with 14 homers in 24 games (May 5-31) and nine homers in 15 games (June 8-26). When he gets hot, he gets very hot, and the home runs come in bunches. Another record-setting season is within reach.
As it stands, Judge is only the fourth player in Yankees history with three 40-homer seasons, joining Ruth (11), Lou Gehrig (five), and Mickey Mantle (four). Judge is positioned to become the fifth player ever with three 50-homer seasons:
- Mark McGwire: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
- Babe Ruth: 1920, 1921, 1927, 1928
- Sammy Sosa: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
- Alex Rodriguez: 2001, 2002, 2007
Judge hit 52 home runs in 2007, which set a new rookie record (Pete Alonso broke it with 53 homers in 2019), plus 62 homers in 2022. He needs to hit seven homers in New York’s final 40 games to become the fifth player ever with three 50-homer seasons.
The 32-year-old slugger entered play Wednesday with a .332/.466/.699 batting line and six more home runs than any other player. Shohei Ohtani is second in the league with 37 homers. In addition to home runs, Judge also leads baseball in RBI (107), extra-base hits (72), total bases (301), and many other categories.
Judge is the 162nd member of the 300 home run club. Marcell Ozuna (271), Salvador Perez (268), and Kyle Schwarber (274) are next in line to reach the milestone.
