Yankees’ Aaron Judge eyeing more stolen bases during 2026 MLB season
New York Yankees star Aaron Judge has won three of the last four American League Most Valuable Player awards and will enter this season with a chance to become just the third player in Major League Baseball history to win three in a row (joining Shohei Ohtani and Barry Bonds). That’s not to say Judge is happy with his game. Rather, he’s looking to add a new dimension this year.
“Baserunning is on my mind a lot this year,” Judge told reporters Monday. “I’ve seen a lot of guys in the league with 40, 30 bases that you don’t typically expect to run that much. Especially with the way the game has changed with the picks and the shot clock, I think that’s a way that we can use, or, at least, I can use some of my skills a little bit more, put myself in position to score.
“With the lineup we have, it was probably the best offense in all of baseball last year. If I can find a way to get in position to score, if they walk me or do something, then good things are going to happen.”
According to Judge, 17 different players stole at least 30 bases in 2025. That group included Juan Soto (38) and Josh Naylor (30), neither of whom fit the conventional image of a high-volume stealer. In fact, Soto and Naylor both finished in the 13th percentile or worse in Statcast sprint speed, suggesting their steals were a product of their intelligence — and their use of the aforementioned pick limit and pitch clock rules — instead of their wheels. Judge, for comparison, ranked in the 42nd percentile in that metric, which helps explain why he’s been a legitimate center field option for the Yankees in the past despite his size.
Judge, 33, has never stolen more than 16 bases in a single campaign, despite hitting around 75 percent. The key question for the Yankees is whether the added value he would bring by running more often would be worth the downside of increasing his injury risk. Given Judge’s production at the plate (he hit .312/.445/.674 and averaged 49 homers over the last three years), the Yankees can be excused if they decide between now and Opening Day to give him the red light as often as in the past.
