Why Isn’t Aaron Judge Intentionally Walked More?

Aaron Judge had one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history this year. He led the big leagues or was tied in many major categories: home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, runs scored, total bases, R.B.I., extra-base hits and wins above replacement. He narrowly missed out on the rare feat of a triple crown, in which a batter leads their league in batting average, home runs and R.B.I.

With such an imposing hitter, the expectation is that some opposing teams would want to avoid facing him in situations with the game on the line, opting instead to intentionally walk him and let someone else on the Yankees try to beat them. Under the practices of this era of baseball, driven by data and probabilities, that is no longer the case.

Despite hitting .311 with 62 home runs, 131 R.B.I. and a 1.111 on-base plus slugging percentage in 696 plate appearances this season, Judge was intentionally walked only 19 times. He did not even lead the majors, with that honor falling to José Ramírez, the Cleveland Guardians slugger who will face the Yankees in their best-of-five American League division series starting Tuesday in the Bronx. Ramírez, a switch-hitting third baseman, was intentionally walked 20 times.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/10/sports/baseball/aaron-judge-yankees-intentional-walks.html