Yankees’ Aaron Judge, Juan Soto keep authoring different playoff narratives

Aaron Judge is the only man wearing the pinstripe suit with a chance to break into the Pantheon of Yankees that features Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Yogi Berra.

All due re2pect, Derek Jeter couldn’t quite crash the exclusive party and he was only one of the linchpins of five World Series championships throughout his 19-plus seasons in the Bronx.

It is not important how many career hits No. 2 collected, though the final tally stood at 3,465, the most in franchise history and the sixth most in major league history.

It wouldn’t have meant much of anything around these parts if not for the bling.

The first sentence of Judge’s hagiography will reference his American League home run record of 62 in 2022 and his 58-homer season of 2024, plus untold acts of regular season dominance that lay in waiting for this unique 32-year-old who seems to get better by the season.

But there are no moments that equate to Jeter’s leadoff home run at Shea Stadium in Game 4 of the 2000 Subway Series. There are no moments that equate to Jeter’s Mr. November 10th-inning game-winning home run off Byung Hyun Kim in Game 4 of the 2001 Series against Arizona.

If there are postseason moments for Judge, they are few and far between. A drop in the bucket. He is the greatest natural offensive force in the game probably since Mantle’s heyday six-plus decades ago. No. 99’s bWAR of 11.7 this season has been exceeded by only Ruth five times and the tainted Barry Bonds once.

But the ring display remains barren and one of the reasons, at least in 2022 when the Yankees were swept by the Astros in the ALCS, was Judge going 1-for-22 against Houston with four strikeouts.

Overall, Judge is slashing .206/.307/.451 with a .758 OPS and 13 home runs and 25 RBI in 45 games over seven postseason series. In 18 games this decade, the stats resemble an optical illusion, the preeminent hitter in the game slashing .135/.207/.338 with a .545 OPS, five homers and eight RBI while striking out 28 times in 82 plate appearance.

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That includes Saturday night’s 6-5, Division Series Game 1 victory over the Royals at the Stadium in which Judge went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, a walk and a run scored. He struck out in the first inning with runners on second and third and none out in a scoreless game. He struck out in the fifth inning with men on first and second and one out with his team down 5-4. He also then struck out in the eighth with no one on and his team with the 6-5 lead.

His first-inning, running catch at the warning track in left-center off the bat of Bobby Witt Jr. might have saved a run or two, by the way. Moments can be produced in the field, too. Mantle had one saving Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956 against Brooklyn.

Of course, the Yankees won the game and the Series.

The Forever Yankee has not been able to produce a Forever Swing of the Bat in the postseason. He has not duplicated Mantle’s ninth-inning, game-winning home run off the Cardinals’ Barney Schultz in Game 3 of the 1964 Series that broke a tie with the Babe for the most home runs in what was then known as the Fall Classic.

It is a small sample size, of course, and No. 99 can change the narrative at any at-bat. But I always remember that every Ted Williams retrospective always prominently included his 5-for-25 (five singles) failure in his only World Series — a seven-game 1946 defeat to the Cardinals.

The man positioned to Judge’s left and one spot above him in the batting order presents a different story.

At this juncture, Juan Soto is A Transient Yankee, having used this walk year to burnish his credentials before he goes onto the market seeking (and likely receiving) the most lucrative contract in baseball history. More than the nine-year, $360 million deal Judge scored as a free agent two winters ago. Much more.

The soon-to-be 26-year-old right fielder could become a Forever Yankee if chairman Hal Steinbrenner comes up with the highest offer to this engaging, charismatic Scott Boras client.

But even if he is here only for this season, he would become a Forever Yankee if he creates Forever Moments that leads to the Series title regardless to where he absconds after the deed is done. (Even Queens? Maybe not Queens.)

Soto has a resumé of meeting the postseason moment. He went 9-for-27 with three home runs and seven RBI for the Nationals in their seven-game World Series victory over Houston in 2019. He entered Game 2 with a career postseason slash line of .276/.359/.509 with an .867 OPS and seven homers and 21 RBI in 30 games following his 3-for-5 with a double in Game 1.

Forever Moments are always one at-bat away.

For the Forever Yankee and Transient Yankee alike.