Controversy prevails around the New York Yankees captain, Aaron Judge. Despite being a two-time MVP award winner, his postseason and World Series left fans disheartened, leading to back-and-forth jabs. But Yanks legend doesn’t want to consider it a big deal. Former Yankee shortstop Alex Rodriguez would term Judge’s condition as the October woes, which would pass in due time. Remember something?

Rodriguez was not always a star during the playoffs. But then, the 2009 World Series happened. His unforgettable offensive performance assisted the Yankees in winning their 27th World Series title. So, there is after all hope for Aaron Judge to turn around and give a spectacular performance. A-Rod surely had his faith in a young Judge.

Aaron Judge is special despite all the backlash

A throwback video has recently gone viral on Instagram where Alex Rodriguez was seen praising a young Aaron Judge for his amazing skills. “It’s exciting when you see a kid like that hit a ball over the scoreboard, that’s pretty special! Look, our job as veteran players is to expedite the maturation process of guys like Judge and all the other great young players we have here (Yankees),” A-Rod was seen sharing his thoughts with reporters. But did fans consider that?

Apparently, no! With Judge’s 58 home runs, 144 RBIs, and 1.159 OPS over 158 games in the regular season, the Yanks could reach the World Series in 2024. But his postseason performance did deteriorate, with only 3 home runs and 9 RBIs. Then, his infamous ball drop during the fifth inning of World Series Game 5 led the Dodgers to win the title, and evidently, fans got mad.

Seeing his regular season performance, obviously, there were expectations of the Yankees breaking their prolonged championship dry spell. But fans couldn’t help but notice Aaron hitting only 16 home runs throughout his postseason career. And that disappointment led to trolls all around the internet calling him names. But what if it’s an MLB pattern?

Postseason Alex Rodriguez was not that great as well

The 32-year-old rightfielder is getting compared with A-Rod because there are similarities. The postseason blues were a part of Alex’s career until 2009. Over his 22-year career, he achieved a .930 OPS being pretty consistent in regular seasons. But playoffs were not his forte, except for that one year when he led the Yanks to win the World Series title, hitting .365 with 6 home runs and 18 RBIs.

Besides, A-Rod had several other struggles in his life, like getting alleged to have used performance-enhancing drugs. Despite everything, he came back. And comparing both of these players, Judge is already ahead in his performance. His 7 years of playoff stats, comprising 13 series, have a .208 hitter, 13 home runs, and 25 RBIs. Over 12 years and 19 series, Alex Rodriguez was a .269 hitter with 13 homers and 41 RBIs.

Not just that, ever since 2009, the New York Yankees could reach anywhere near the World Series title because of Aaron Judge. And well, self-realization matters, after the team’s 4-2 defeat to the Dodgers, Judge himself acknowledged, “You want to be getting the hits. You want to be going out there, doing your job. I’m not doing my job right now. I’ve got to pick it up.”

So, baseball fans can stay optimistic, what if a post-24 Judge happens just like a post-09 A-Rod? What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!