“We’ll see.”
Aaron Judge (31, New York Yankees), who wrote a new American League history last year and won a record-breaking contract, stood at the starting line to challenge a new history again.
Judge hit 62 homers last season to become the American League home run champion. The 62 broke the American League season record for most home runs (61) set by Roger Maris (then Yankees) in 61 years.
It wasn’t just that he hit a lot of home runs. RBIs (131 points), runs scored (133 points), on-base percentage (0.425) and slugging percentage (0.686) all led the American League and won five crowns. In fact, he is the king before batting average except for batting average. Thanks to his complete batting record, he was named American League MVP (Most Valuable Player) after the season.
After posting his best record, he won his best contract. Judge, who became a free agent after the season, signed a 9-year, $360 million contract with his original team, the Yankees. It was unprecedented for him, who was born in 1992, to win a contract that lasted until we were 40 years old at an annual salary of $40 million.
The Yankees gave Judge fame as well as money. After officially announcing the contract, he was appointed captain. He is the 16th captain in Yankees history, behind Derek Jeter. This is the captain who came out after 9 seasons after Jeter retired in 2014.
It is the season right after the great record was written. Public interest is hotter than before. On the 21st, on the first day of official field training for spring camp, Judge participated and received a lot of attention from local reporters such as MLB.com and the Associated Press. 스포츠토토
The most noteworthy was, of course, “Can you hit 62 home runs this year?” As it was a great record, Judge gave a professional answer instead of unfounded confidence. MLB.com reports that Judge replied, “You’ll find out soon.” It’s not something to be certain, but it means that we have to wait and see what results come out after entering the season.
“I don’t like to predict my performance by numbers. I’m going to focus on what I can control,” Judge said. . It was an MVP-like answer that was neither meaninglessly confident nor scared and running away. Rather than being greedy for records, Judge looked back on last season, which was the best year, saying, “It was fun to spend the moment chasing history. Every time I play in New York, I feel like chasing history.”
Judge’s goal is, of course, to win the World Series. Last year, the Yankees ended the year losing to the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series. After joining Judge, he reached the championship series a total of three times, but lost all of them to Houston and failed to reach the World Series. “We tried to win the World Series every year, but we failed. Sometimes the results tire us,” Judge said. Because of this,” he said, burning his will to win.