Around the Empire: Yankees news - 10/6/22

CBS Sports | Mike Axisa: Aaron Judge’s dreams of a Triple Crown effectively ended on Tuesday night when he departed after two at-bats following No. 62 and it was decided that he would have Game 162 off as well. That left his batting average at .311 for the season, and the Twins’ Luis Arraez won the title. Hamstring tightness kept him out of a few games this week, but he still went 4-for-10 in October contests (playing Games 161 and 162) to end the year at .316.

Of course, Judge still led the league in homers (62), RBI (131), walks (111), OBP (.425), slugging percentage (.686), OPS (1.111), OPS+ (211), total bases (391), and both versions of WAR (10.7, 11.5). For all the respect I have for the prestige of the Triple Crown, leading in all those categories is probably more impressive.

SI.com | Stephanie Apstein: SI dove deep on the final days of Judge’s pursuit of 62 homers, and the pressure he’s been enduring. It obviously goes deeper than chasing down Roger Maris, as he’s in the contract year of all contract years after turning down a $213.5 million extension, and he was most disappointed in his slump not setting the table enough for his teammates in the lineup. Of course, I’ll also note that while the homers slowed down after No. 60 and his average fell to .244 in the last 14 games, it still came with a .483 OBP and .947 OPS, so the big guy shouldn’t beat himself up too much!

New York Post | Dan Martin: Even though he hasn’t played in a big league game since August 8th due to his recovery from a broken foot, midsummer sensation Matt Carpenter still looks to be in pretty decent shape to make the Yankees’ playoff roster. Rather than having him fly to Texas, they had Carpenter take at-bats at the team’s alternate site in Double-A Somerset (whose season ended last week). Manager Aaron Boone says that the reports on Carpenter are good, and that he could be rostered as a “real pinch-hitting option.” Even with the rust, I don’t think Cleveland or Tampa Bay pitchers would be particularly keen about facing a second guy with an OPS+ over 210.

As for trade deadline addition Andrew Benintendi, the outlook isn’t as optimistic after fracturing the hook of his hamate bone on September 2nd. He still hasn’t taken any at-bats, and Boone was more noncommittal about his possible addition to the ALDS roster.

NJ.com | Randy Miller: We deviated from Judge for the previous story, so we’ll end it with one more for No. 99. This is an enjoyable profile of Judge’s impact on his hometown of Linden and the neighboring areas. The highlight of the story is early on when Miller mentions the barbershop that gives out shots of tequila whenever Judge homers, but there are tons of other pleasant anecdotes in there as well.