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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Tom Verducci

Aaron Judge Has History on His Side for an Even Bigger Encore Season

Aaron Judge Freddie Freeman Yankees

What can Aaron Judge do for an encore? History suggests he will put together another elite season, but one that doesn’t quite measure up to his 2022 breakout—unless he is another Willie McCovey and is about to get even better.

Last season Judge posted the greatest age-30 season ever, as measured by OPS+. It was far and away his biggest season. Almost without exception, such huge breakout hitters backslide a bit the next year.

Here are the 10 highest age-30 OPS+ seasons for those who reached a career high that year—and what happened to their OPS+ in their encore season after the breakout.

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