NEW YORK — The Yankees fell 6-1 to the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night in the Bronx. But buried inside that defeat was a number that stopped everyone paying attention.
Fifteen.
Aaron Judge hit his 15th home run of the season in the sixth inning off Nathan Eovaldi. One swing. The Yankees trailed badly and never recovered. But that ball left the yard and landed in a very specific list of names that Yankees fans should recognize.
He joined Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. That is the kind of sentence that does not come along often.
Judge among the Yankees’ greatest early-season sluggers
Judge’s 15th home run in the Yankees’ first 37 games of 2026 places him fourth on the franchise’s all-time list for most home runs in the first 37 games of a season. Only three Yankees have done more or matched the number at that point in a season, and all three are among the most celebrated names in baseball history.
The list reads as follows: Mickey Mantle hit 17 in 1956. Babe Ruth hit 16 in both 1928 and 1926. Judge now sits at 15, tied with Alex Rodriguez, who reached the mark in 2007 in just 31 games.
The difference worth noting is pace. Judge is the quickest Yankee to reach 15 home runs since Rodriguez nearly two decades ago. Per ESPN Insights, it is also the fastest any MLB player has reached 15 home runs since Christian Yelich did it in 2019.
MLB’s official account on X posted the milestone in real time Wednesday night, writing that Judge had become the first player in baseball to reach 15 home runs this season. The post drew thousands of responses within minutes.
Career home run list keeps moving
Wednesday’s blast also moved Judge up the all-time MLB home run rankings. The homer was the 383rd of his career. Baseball historian account @RobBballHistory noted on social media that the shot moved Judge past Frank Howard, Ryan Howard and Hall of Famer Jim Rice and into a tie with Hall of Famer Larry Walker for 70th place on the career list.
Judge has spent all 11 of his MLB seasons in the Yankees lineup. He holds a career 1.030 OPS, one of the highest marks in the modern era for any player with a comparable volume of at-bats.
What the 2026 numbers look like
Through 37 Yankees games, Judge is batting .273 with 36 hits, 15 home runs, 28 RBIs, 34 runs scored and five stolen bases. His OPS sits at 1.074. His WAR pace projects to 10.1 for the full season, per Baseball Reference.
If his current home run pace holds, Judge would finish 2026 with 66 home runs. That would surpass the 62 he hit in 2022 to set the American League record and would place him among the top single-season totals in baseball history.
The 2022 season brought Judge his first MVP award and American League home run record. He has since won two more MVP awards and has shown no signs of declining. At 34 years old in 2026, his production is arguably as good as it has ever been.
Judge’s swing off Eovaldi broke a 13-inning scoreless streak the Rangers ace had built against the Yankees. The captain has been the constant for a Yankees team built around his production. He leads the majors in home runs, is among the top five in RBIs, and is pacing himself against company no Yankees hitter has kept since Ruth and Mantle were taking their cuts in pinstripes.
The Yankees lost Wednesday. But the Yankees history kept accumulating. And the baseball history got a sign to watch.
What do you think? Can he go past 62 home runs this season?
