TAMPA, Fla. — Aaron Judge was one of the last to leave the Yankees’ clubhouse that final night back in October. The slugger soaked in the quiet aftermath of losing the American League Championship Series, his historic season ended by the Astros for the third time in six years.
In those moments, the 2023 season began for Judge and the Yankees. Judge re-signed with New York last winter to a record nine-year, $360 million deal in part because he had the “unfinished business” of never even winning an AL pennant in pinstripes. Judge, who made history when he hit 62 home runs in 2022 and was named the AL MVP, began thinking about what he needed to do to finally win a World Series.
“That silence in that clubhouse after those losses is probably the worst feeling a ballplayer could have. You don’t know what to say, you don’t know what to do,” Judge said Monday at George M. Steinbrenner field after the Yankees’ first full-squad spring training workout.
