Aaron Judge on verge of smashing another home run record

On Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays, Aaron Judge sent a 94 MPH running sinker from Jays pitcher Jose Berrios over the left-center wall to give the New York Yankees a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning. That home run was the 298th homer of his career.

With two more home runs, the Yankees slugger will have played in the fewest games to reach 300 career homers in MLB history. And the record won't even be a close one. With a current HR/G rate of 0.37 in 2024, Judge will likely set the record in a week.

The current record holder, Ralph Kiner , played in 1,087 games to reach 300 career home runs. Through August 3, Judge has played in just 945 games to reach 298 home runs in his career. That's a difference of about 3/4 of a full season worth of games.

This is not a shot at Kiner by any means. The Hall Of Famer was an offensive juggernaut in his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates. If not for a debilitating back injury, Kiner would likely have been a shoo-in to join the 500 HR club.

But this just puts how great Judge has been into perspective. And if not for the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, Judge would be well over the 300 career homer mark. The 32-year-old dinger machine is currently the heavily favored front-runner to win his second MVP in three years and boasts a .321/.452/.702 triple-slash, 41 homers and 103 RBI in 110 games played on the season.

Judge's first MVP came in his historic 2022 season, when he broke the American League single-season home run record with 62 long balls. With Judge about to smash another homer record in 2024, it feels like that second MVP is all but certain now.