Yankees' Aaron Boone Praises Aaron Judge: 'We're Watching Greatness' in 2024 Season

Aaron Judge is having another MVP-caliber season, hitting .321 while leading all of baseball in homers (41), RBI (103), OPS (1.154) and WAR (7.6).

And New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone isn't taking it for granted.

"We're watching greatness," he told reporters Saturday. "So you try not to take that for granted, what you're seeing 99 do. I feel now, for a few years, you hear a lot of [Babe Ruth], [Mickey] Mantle, [Lou] Gehrig, [Joe] DiMaggio, those kinds of names intertwined with a lot of things he's doing. So, try to appreciate every now and then what we have."

Judge instills so much fear in opponents at this point that Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider chose to intentionally walk him—with nobody on base and two outs—in the bottom of the second inning on Saturday.

That might be the ultimate sign of respect.

Judge, after all, had blasted a two-run homer off the team during Friday's game, and another two-run shot in the bottom of the first inning on Saturday.

"I honestly didn't feel like seeing him swing. That was kind of it," Schneider told reporters after the game regarding the decision. "He's in a different category I think than anyone else in the league, where he can just flip the script of a game with one swing."

It's extremely rare that a manager would walk a player that early in the game with nobody on base and two outs. You have to go back over 50 years to find the last example:

Judge was certainly surprised.

"I think just how early it was in the game," he said. "It was still pretty close at the time. So, I guess with two outs there, I think they were just looking to maybe getting out the next guy. But [Austin] Wells came up with the big hit so hopefully it doesn't happen again. We'll see."

Wells hit a single, though Gleyber Torres struck out to end the inning. In this case, Schneider's gambit paid off (though the Yankees won the game, 8-3).

Given the tear he's on this season—he's on pace for a whopping 59 home runs—other managers might follow suit. MLB teams have probably reached the point where forcing players like Wells or Giancarlo Stanton to punish them, rather than squaring off with Judge, is the most prudent call.