Aaron Judge on Pace for 61 Home Runs in 2026 After Dominating Five-Year Stretch

New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge continues to dominate as baseball's top hitter through the early part of the 2026 season. The 34-year-old has 15 home runs in his team's first 40 games, a pace for 61 over a full 162-game schedule.

Judge broke the American League single-season home run record with 62 in 2022. From 2021 to 2025, he hit 250 home runs, drove in 540 runs, scored 513 times and stole 48 bases. He missed 56 games in 2023 after crashing into a wall at Dodger Stadium but still hit 37 homers in 106 games.

Over that span, Judge batted .306 with a .426 on-base percentage and .649 slugging percentage for a 1.075 OPS. He averaged 55 home runs per season.

Advanced metrics show his edge. Judge's weighted on-base average stood at .443, well ahead of Shohei Ohtani's .409. No other star like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Ronald Acuna Jr. or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. topped .388.

His weighted runs created plus, a park- and league-adjusted measure where 100 equals average, reached 193 cumulatively from 2021-2025—93 percent better than average. Ohtani ranked second at 165, with Juan Soto at 160.

For his career, Judge's wRC+ is 178, third in MLB history behind Babe Ruth and Ted Williams, ahead of Barry Bonds.

Only Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, both tied to performance-enhancing drugs, hit 60 or more homers in multiple seasons. Babe Ruth did it once. A 60-homer repeat would make Judge the first without PED links.

Injuries or slumps remain risks with a long season ahead. Still, Judge thrives as pitchers throw harder than ever. Average fastball velocity hit 94.6 mph in 2026, up from 93.1 mph at the start of the Statcast era. Better pitch shapes, spin rates and tunneling make hitting tougher, yet Judge posts historic numbers.