Six-foot-seven Aaron Judge, from a rookie hitting .179 to the single season American League home run king, diligently built a ferociously efficient swing built on leverage. Judge loads on his back hip and destroys baseballs with such a precise uphill path of his bat that last season it produced a home run more than once every three times he hit a fly ball, a feat you might not see in some major league batting practices against coaches throwing 55 mph cookies.
Leverage—quiet, ruthless leverage—is also how Judge won his contract negotiations with the Yankees. New York checked its charts and algorithms back in April, waiting just before Judge’s self-imposed deadline, and figured its greatest homegrown slugger since Mickey Mantle was worth 13% less than what the Angels paid third baseman Anthony Rendon. They offered him $213.5 million over seven years, with concerns over his age and durability. They also misread their humble giant by announcing the details of the pile of money he turned down, a breach of private negotiations in Judge’s mind.
Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated
