Aaron Judge continues to cement his place among baseball’s all-time greats, reaching 50 home runs in a season for the fourth time during the New York Yankees’ 8-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night.
Judge became just the fourth player in MLB history to record four 50-homer seasons, joining Babe Ruth, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa.
The Yankees’ captain reached the milestone in the second inning, crushing a three-run homer to right-center field off White Sox right-hander Jonathan Cannon to give New York a 3-1 lead. He later added No. 51 with a solo blast off left-hander Cam Booser in the eighth, finishing the night 3-for-4 and raising his league-best batting average to .328.
Judge’s resume of 50-homer seasons now includes his rookie year in 2017 (52, en route to AL Rookie of the Year), his record-breaking 2022 MVP season (62, setting the American League single-season home run record), last year’s MVP season (58 to lead the majors), and this year’s dominant performance.
He now shares elite company with Ruth, McGwire, and Sosa, the only other players to reach the milestone four times. This season has also seen an offensive surge across baseball, with Judge joining Cal Raleigh, Shohei Ohtani, and Kyle Schwarber as players who have already surpassed the 50-homer mark — tying the all-time record for the most in a single season.
Judge’s dominance this year has also fueled his push for a third American League MVP Award, which would tie him with Yogi Berra for the most in Yankees history. He currently leads the majors in WAR, OPS, wRC+, batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging. His main competition is Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who has outpaced him in home runs (58) and RBIs (121) but trails in nearly every other offensive category.
Judge has also been climbing the Yankees’ all-time home run leaderboard. Earlier this month, he passed both Yogi Berra and Joe DiMaggio for fourth in franchise history and now sits at 365 career home runs, trailing only Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Lou Gehrig.
Wednesday’s win, coupled with Toronto’s loss to Boston, moved the Yankees into a tie with the Blue Jays atop the American League East with four games remaining in the resular season. However, New York must finish with a better record to clinch the division, as Toronto owns the head-to-head tiebreaker.
HOME RUN NO. 50 FOR AARON JUDGE! pic.twitter.com/iIhEqbkNCl
— MLB (@MLB) September 24, 2025
AARON JUDGE AGAIN!
— MLB (@MLB) September 25, 2025
NO. 51 FOR THE CAPTAIN! pic.twitter.com/s7Kd4beMHi
