TAMPA — Aaron Judge has heard the criticism. He has seen the memes. Friends and family made sure of that. And the Yankees captain is not buying any of it.
Judge returned to Yankees camp on Thursday, two days after captaining Team USA to a crushing 3-2 loss to Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic final. He was back in the lineup Friday night for a 3-1 win over the Orioles at Steinbrenner Field. The WBC heartbreak was still fresh, but the pinstripes offered a reset.
Throughout the tournament, Team USA drew heat from fans and media for appearing too businesslike. Too buttoned up. Not enough flair compared to the Latin American teams that turned the WBC into a nightly party with dancing, bat flips and espresso celebrations. Judge went after that narrative head on.
Judge fires back at the passion debate
“Everybody’s different, every culture’s different,” Judge said before Friday’s game. “I love everything what Mexico was doing, what Great Britain was doing, what the DR, how they celebrated the game, how their fans celebrated the game, that was amazing.”
But the three-time American League MVP was not about to accept the idea that the Yankees captain and his Team USA teammates lacked heart.
“If they’re gonna say we don’t have the passion, my passion’s grinding in this cage when nobody’s watching, grinding as a 6-year-old in the backyard with my dad,” Judge said. “That’s where our passion came from as kids. So if I don’t show it outwardly like that, it doesn’t mean I don’t love the game.”
Judge said every player in the Team USA clubhouse called the WBC the most fun they had ever had on a baseball field. The Yankees star added that he tried to block out the criticism but could not avoid it entirely. Friends and family kept bringing it up.
“What am I gonna do? I can’t change your opinion,” Judge said. “That’s what they think so …”
A rough final but a strong tournament overall
The WBC final did not go well for the Yankees right fielder or the rest of Team USA’s star-studded lineup. Venezuela starter Eduardo Rodriguez held the Americans to one hit through 4.1 scoreless innings. Judge went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in the title game, including a called third strike to end the eighth inning with the game tied at two.
Eugenio Suarez delivered the go-ahead RBI double in the top of the ninth off Garrett Whitlock. Daniel Palencia shut the door to give Venezuela its first WBC championship. Team USA fell in the final for the second straight tournament after losing to Japan in 2023.
Over seven WBC games, Judge posted a .222 average with an .845 OPS. He tied for the team lead with two home runs and added five RBIs, six walks and a key outfield assist in the semifinal against the Dominican Republic when he threw out Fernando Tatis Jr. at third base. His seven strikeouts were the second most on Team USA.
Judge said the atmosphere was unlike anything he had experienced in the regular season or even in a World Series.
“It’s different when you got a band out in right field, a band in left field, different chants,” he said. “You don’t usually see that. World Series games, a lot of the passionate fans, they can’t afford those tickets sometimes.”
Judge said he wants to play for Team USA again. He mentioned the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and the next WBC, likely in 2029, as goals. He also floated the idea of moving the WBC to midseason so pitchers could be fully built up.
Michael Kay rips Yankees fans over Judge criticism
The backlash against the Yankees slugger reached a boiling point on “The Michael Kay Show” on Thursday. The longtime Yankees broadcaster and ESPN Radio host went after fans who piled on Judge for the WBC final performance while ignoring the rest of his tournament.
“We can go up and down that All-Star-laden-Hall-of-Fame-to-be lineup, and they all crapped the bed. Every single one of them except for Harper,” Kay said. “But the one guy who’s going to get villainized and scrutinized and criticized, the one guy that everybody decides, ‘I’m going to pile on this guy,’ is Aaron Judge.”
Kay pointed to a familiar pattern he sees among Yankees fans who refuse to appreciate their own generational talent.
“Derek Jeter has five World Series championships and he’s called overrated. Aaron Judge has no World Series championships and he’s called overrated,” Kay said. “The haters are out there in full force. That’s just the way of the world right now.”
Kay added that he blamed Yankees fans who try to find flaws in the Yankees captain. He acknowledged the drought since 2009 but said that does not excuse ignoring what Judge does every year to get the Yankees into the postseason. An 89-year-old caller punctuated the segment, telling Kay that explaining Judge’s greatness to his critics was like reasoning with the “rear end of a horse.”
Yankees ease Judge back into camp routine
With Opening Day on March 25 against the Giants in San Francisco, the Yankees plan to give Judge a light schedule over the final days of 2026 spring training. He served as the designated hitter on Friday night after returning from the WBC. Yankees manager Boone said Judge is scheduled to play right field on Sunday and start Monday’s exhibition against the Cubs in Arizona before the regular season begins.
“He’s built up, ready to go,” Boone said, “so a couple days backing off hopefully serves him well.”
Judge had built up his arm and workload early in Yankees spring training specifically to be ready for the WBC. Now the Yankees want him fresh, not fatigued, for a season where expectations are as high as ever.
The Yankees return most of the lineup that produced baseball’s highest-scoring offense in 2025. The Yankees are favored to win the American League for the second time in three years. Gerrit Cole is expected back from Tommy John surgery on the sooner side. The Yankees roster is largely intact with Bellinger and Grisham re-signed.
The Yankees captain made it clear the WBC sting will not last long.
“You’re still thinking about the last couple games, the whole tournament, stuff like that,” Judge said. “You’re mad about that. But once I came back here, get a chance to be around the boys and throw on the pinstripes, now it’s time to get back to what we’re doing with the Yankees and build towards a championship again.”
What do you think? Is Aaron Judge getting a wrong portrayal after WBC?
