Aaron Judge will never be Derek Jeter and $360m ‘choke artist’ keeps striking out on baseball’s biggest stage

Mar 18, 2026 - 11:15

There are two different Aaron Judges.

One hits .331 during the regular season, blasts 62 home runs as the modern face of the New York Yankees and is the biggest slugger in Major League Baseball.

Aaron Judge struck out three times as Team USA lost the World Baseball Classic

Judge can’t escape big game strikeouts

Then there is the other Judge that World Baseball Classic watchers, New York fans and Yankees haters have been forced to believe is the real Judge.

The constantly whiffing 6ft 7in and 282lb dude who went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts at a time when Team USA needed the other Judge more than ever.

A man making $360 million to play right field in Yankee Stadium, but who is a career .236 hitter in the postseason with 91 strikeouts in 246 at-bats.

Blame USA manager Mark DeRosa all you want.

He never seemed up to the task, took triumphing in the 2026 World Baseball Classic for granted, and is now stuck with a 3-2 loss to Venezuela at a time when America is all over the place on the world’s stage.

“For some reason, this WBC has become a tidal wave of emotion for a lot of guys,” said DeRosa, somehow still missing the point of the World Baseball Classic.

Bryce Harper hit .214 in the WBC — but at least he went 2-for-4 with a huge two-run home run in the eighth inning on Tuesday night before a booming crowd of 36,190 inside loanDepot park in Miami.

Alex Bregman, who won two World Series with the Houston Astros, batted a horrible .143 during the WBC for Team USA, which was almost eliminated before the semifinals and has now lost back-to-back World Baseball Classics.

But Judge was the biggest letdown in the WBC championship, and was erased in the first, fourth and eighth innings with Ks.

Team USA overmatched in WBC

A ground out in the sixth also left Harper stranded, and Venezuela punched through a tense 2-2 tie in the top of the ninth when Eugenio Suárez smacked a game-winning double that rolled to the left-center field wall and forever changed the history of baseball in Venezuela.

In a WBC defined by passion and pride, Team USA too often acted above it all — and paid the price.

Aaron Judge is being defined by his big game struggles and fell short in the World Baseball Classic — Judge is being defined by his big game struggles and fell short in the World Baseball Classic

Judge has won three AL MVPs but is 0-for-1 in the World Series

“The World Series, as you all know, is one of the most important championships in the major leagues, but when you fight for your country, that goes beyond,” Salvador Perez said.

“That feeling, the country where you were born and raised, the sacrifices made by our parents, those people that helped us, that’s why this means a lot to me and to Venezuela.”

The Yankees were once defined by championships, championships and more championships.

But the Los Angeles Dodgers are the modern big-money dynasty in MLB, while Judge hit .188 during his first trip to the playoffs in 2017, .133 in 2020, .139 in 2022 and .184 in 2024.

Judge is no Derek Jeter in Yankees history

Those are abysmal numbers that have become an albatross for the Yank who said this before Team USA gave the World Baseball Classic championship to Venezuela.

“It’s bigger and better than the World Series,” Judge said.

Judge has 368 career home runs but a .236 batting average with 91 strikeouts in the playoffs

“The passion that these fans have, representing their country, representing some of their favorite players, there’s nothing like it.”

Judge has only been to the World Series once and his Yankees were humbled 4-1 by Shohei Ohtani‘s Dodgers.

Judge is entering his 11th MLB season, he’ll turn 34 on April 26, and he still trails Derek Jeter 5-0 in World Series trophies — which was the same total when Judge made his MLB debut in 2016.

The Yankees have been championship or bust for decades, and Judge doesn’t have a single ring.

Team USA was championship or bust in this World Baseball Classic, and Venezuela reminded Judge’s team how baseball is supposed to be played in 2026.

Yankees fans would trade all of Judge’s 50-plus HR seasons for the team’s first World Series title since 2009.

Every baseball fan in the world pulling for Team USA in the WBC finale felt like a Yankees fan — waiting and waiting for Judge to do something important when it really mattered.

Whiff.

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