Aaron Judge

Aaron Judge was born in Linden, California, on 26th April 1992. He was adopted shortly after his birth by Patty and Wayne Judge. His parents are both teachers. He has an older brother named John who is adopted as well.

He attended Linden High School, where he performed brilliantly in sports. He played baseball, football, as well as basketball. He was also a member of the Linden High School team that made it to the Division III playoffs of the California Interscholastic Federation.

During the 31st round of the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft, he was selected by the Oakland Athletics. He, however, chose to play for the California State University’s Fresno State Bulldogs Baseball Team.

Aaron Judge was drafted in the first round of the 2013 Major League Baseball draft by the New York Yankees. He received a signing bonus of $1.8 million. Unfortunately, during a base running drill, he suffered an injury and tore a quadriceps femoris muscle, due to which he had to opt out from playing in the 2013 season.

He made his professional debut in 2014, with the Charleston RiverDogs of the Class A South Atlantic League. He scored a batting average of .333, and on-base percentage of .428, and a slugging percentage of .530. He hit nine home runs for his team with 45 RBIs in 65 games. Because of his performance, he was promoted to the Class A-Advanced Florida State League during the season. He continued to perform well, hitting .283 with .411 OBP, .442 SLG, eight home runs, and 33 RBIs in 66 games for Tampa.

He began the 2015 season with the Trenton Thunder of the Class AA Eastern League. He batted .284 with a .350 OBP and 12 home runs in 63 games for the team. In June, he was promoted to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders of the Class AAA International League. He appeared in 93 games for RailRiders and had a .270 batting average with 18 home runs and 65 RBIs. He was also chosen to represent the Yankees at the All-Star Futures Game.

He made his debut for the New York Yankees in August 2016 in a match against the Tampa Bay Rays. He hit a home run in his first game and performed well in the ensuing games as well. Unfortunately, he suffered an oblique strain the following month, due to which he was put on the ‘disabled’ list.

The 2017 season proved to be the most important one of his career. He became the second rookie in the history of the MLB to hit 40 runs in a season. He finished the season with a batting average of .284, 154 hits and 114 RBIs. He received the Players Choice Award and the Silver Slugger Award, and was also voted as the American League Rookie of the Year.