Be it a stunning win or a crushing loss, don’t expect Aaron Judge to be emotive about it. The New York Yankees were brutally swept away in a four-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays. What’s even worse is that they no longer hold the first place in the AL East now. They lost the seven-game lead and are now tied for second place.

The series finally came to an end with Blue Jays’ right fielder George Springer’s pair of two-run homers. Meanwhile, for the Yankees, nothing seemed to go right. Their starter, Clarke Schmidt, left the game early due to forearm tightness. He later admitted that he couldn’t feel the quality in his pitches. Before his departure, he threw 55 pitches across three innings. While the Yankees were already 6-3 down in the seventh, a double by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and a groundout by Anthony Volpe cut their already thin deficit.

As if that wasn’t bad, the Blue Jays didn’t give Judge much of a chance to swing his bat. They walked him three times in the final game, including one intentional walk. Still, you know how the series ended for the Yankees. A brutal 8-5 loss! However, even a four-game sweep cannot shake Judge’s calm demeanor.

Speaking with the YES network after the game, he said, “You can’t panic; it’s not gonna help the situation. We’ve got work to do. It’s the baseball season, guys in here, you go back to yesterday’s game. I know we still lost that one. But battling back after being down so much shows the type of fight in this team.” According to Judge, what happened, happened; you have to focus on the bigger picture. But after the June they’ve seen, this is not the attitude fans were expecting. And it wasn’t the captain.

During the postgame appearance, Aaron Boone called the Yankees the best in the league despite losing back-to-back crucial games. Eventually, it frustrated the Yankees Nation that the team wasn’t sounding the alarm yet.

For Judge, again, it’s all about being in the present. “Now, we’ve got to focus on the big series coming against the Mets. So that’s all we can do. Just keep focusing on the present, the game we’ve got ahead of us,” he said. And that’s precisely what the Yankees fans didn’t like. They questioned Judge’s accountability and his lack of urgency. And on an extreme note, they drew an interesting comparison.

Yankees’ Nation gets furious after Aaron Judge’s calm reaction

Let’s just say that the fans expected more accountability from Judge. His postgame remarks led fans to believe that he’s disconnected from the urgency of the Yankees’ struggles. They questioned his captaincy and drew comparisons to Yankees legend Derek Jeter’s captaincy.

It’s Judge, after all; he’s always had an even-tempered nature. But this time, it led fans to believe that he doesn’t care enough. “Jeter never, NEVER acted like that with the media. Christ. Smiling and keeping what he does ‘in house’? W–. Time to be the Captain Aaron,” wrote one fan. It’s true. Jeter had a very different take on media appearances. Back during an interview in 1988, he said, “Some players only talk to the press when they are doing good. When you’re doing bad, you shouldn’t shy away from them and when doing good, don’t run up to them.” That was Jeter’s stance with the media.

However, that doesn’t mean Judge isn’t devoted to the Yankees’ success. It’s just that fans wanted to see a more intense tone from him. “What’s with the smirk after every loss? Jeter wouldn’t smirk after a World Series game that they WON. He would say, “This win means nothing if we don’t win the next one.” Judge isn’t a leader. You aren’t a leader just because you hit home runs.” Judge has an impressive set of numbers in 2025. With 31 home run records, he’s ranked second in the league. Fans are implying here that the fact that Judge has monstrous stats doesn’t mean he’s a good leader too.

Another fan wrote, “You guys suck right now. Face it, you are not even close to being the best team in baseball. A disgrace. You are the captain; man up and get your team to start playing better.” The Blue Jays had a far better and steadier defense, unlike the Yankees. Their starter, Clarke Schmidt, exited the game early. So, it’s going to take more than Judge for the Yankees to stack up wins. Their defensive miscues and bullpen collapse, combined with Schmidt’s exit, deeply affected their footing in the game. The team has looked strong all year and is now no longer in first place in the AL East. With their record dropping to 49-39, the backlash was expected.

Calls for accountability started growing louder. “I would give ANYTHING to hear this man say something to the tune of ‘it’s unacceptable and we need to light a fucking fire under our –,’” a fan wrote. That’s not entirely true. Time and again, Judge has taken accountability when required. Just last month, after a 2-1 loss against the Los Angeles Angels, he said, “You can’t give up, you can’t mope about it. Just show up the next day and be ready to play.” While Judge had the mindset to stay in the present and focus on the upcoming matchup against the Mets, fans expected him to show accountability for the previous matchup. It looks like they want him to match their level of frustration.

While acknowledging his impressive offense, some subtly targeted him for not being a good captain. “Offensively, maybe a great player, the best player on the team, is not always the best leader.” In just 27 games across June, Judge has hit a stunning .253 batting average with 9 home runs and 17 RBIs. June was tough for the Yankees; still, Judge was stellar offensively. However, he is now being targeted for his captaincy, if not the game.

We’re at the midpoint of the 2025 season and it is a difficult stretch, undoubtedly. The Yankees have had their fair share of wins too. We can expect them to bounce back stronger anytime soon. Hopefully, the frustration against Judge right now will convert into admiration.

If not Judge, who do you think is the best-suited captain for the Yankees?

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