Aaron Judge Plans on Adding a New Skill This Season

The three-time MVP said ‘some good things are going to happen’ if he’s able to fully utilize this new skill in the 2026 MLB season.

Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees is caught in a rundown between third base and home plate against the Toronto Blue Jays during the third inning in game three of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City on Oct. 7, 2025. Al Bello/Getty Images

New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has won three of the last four AL MVP awards, holds the all-time American League single-season record (62) for home runs, and leads all MLB players in wins above replacement (37.3) over the last four seasons. However, Judge is not content with the production he’s provided the Yankees, as he believes he could do more in the 2026 MLB season.

It would be hard for Judge to supply any more potency with his bat than what he already brings to the table. So, the Yankees captain plans on emphasizing a different tool, with that being his legs. Judge was asked by the media if there was anything he specifically worked on during the offseason when he arrived at Spring Training, and he said baserunning will be one of his priorities this year.

“Definitely baserunning’s on my mind this year a lot,” Judge said on the Yankees’ first day of full squad workouts on Monday. “I saw a lot of guys around the league with 40, 30 bases that you don’t usually normally expect to be running that much.”

While Judge didn’t specifically mention any of those players, he alluded to those who ran wild last year; one only has to look at the crosstown Mets to see an example. New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto led the National League with 38 stolen bases, which came just one year after Soto shared a clubhouse with Judge while on the Yankees. When in pinstripes for his one season, Soto had just seven stolen bases, and prior to last year, he averaged just 8.1 stolen bases over his first seven MLB seasons.

“With how the game’s changed with the pickoffs and the pitch clock, I think [baserunning] is one way we can utilize, or at least I can utilize some of my skills a little bit more, getting into scoring position,” continued Judge. “With the lineup we have, this was probably the best offense in all of baseball last year. If I can find a way to get myself in scoring position, if they’re going to walk me or do something, then some good things are going to happen.”

They, as in opposing pitchers, are most definitely going to walk Judge often in 2026, if the upcoming season is any indication of the last few years. Judge led the AL with 124 bases on balls in 2025, marking the third time in four years he led the league in walks. However, he was often left stranded on base, as his run-scoring percentage—the rate a player gets on base and then eventually scores—was 32.7 percent last year. That’s slightly above the league average of 30 percent, but there’s a sizable gap between Judge’s run-scoring rate and the league leaders, as four players had percentages of at least 40 percent.

Judge stole 12 bases last year, which is respectable, but he was also thrown out five times. That stolen base success rate of 70.5 percent was a decrease compared to his previous few years with baserunning. From 2021 to 2024, Judge connected on 87.5 percent of his stolen base attempts, including a perfect 10 for 10 in 2024. For reference, just four active players in all of MLB have a career stolen base success rate above 87.5 percent.

When it comes to swiping bags, Judge will never be confused with the only other player in his stratosphere as the best player in the game, Shohei Ohtani. The two-way star infamously created the 50-50 club in 2024 by stealing 59 bases to go along with 54 home runs. However, a slight uptick in base stealing would make Judge even more dangerous and aid the Yankees as a whole.

New York led all of Major League Baseball with 274 home runs last season, so it, clearly, is more of a unit that relies on the longball instead of manufacturing runs. But another dimension of increased baserunning from its best player could also spur other Yankees to follow suit and be more aggressive on the basepaths.

There is, of course, a downside to running more often, and that’s the increased risk of injury. Being sidelined due to injury has been a major problem for much of Judge’s career, so his desire to be more active on the basepaths may not be something the Yankees brass are as fervent behind.

There’s also the fact that he turns 34 in the first month of the season, and players tend to run less as they age. Over the last three MLB seasons, just four players have swiped at least 20 bags in a season at 34 or older, and they were all much smaller in stature than Judge. The four—Jose Altuve, Starling Marte, Whit Merrifield, and Tommy Pham—average 5-foot-11 and 196 pounds, while Judge checks in at 6-foot-7 and 282 pounds.

Nonetheless, these are the type of proclamations often made during Spring Training, and we’ll have to wait until the regular season rolls around to see if it comes true. Judge’s career high for stolen bases in a season was 16 in 2022, which certainly seems like an attainable number again.