Aaron Judge now linked to Mickey Mantle in more ways than one

It feels right that on the day we celebrate Aaron Judge joining an elite pantheon of athlete — the multi-time winner of the Most Valuable Player award — that we take a walk back to the beginning, when Judge was little more than a 6-foot-7, 280-pound curiosity who mostly specialized in striking out.

Hard to remember that, right?

Judge homered in his big-league debut, a solo second-inning shot off Tampa’s Matt Andriese on Aug. 13, 2017, that helped fuel an 8-4 win in an otherwise forgettable Yankees season. But that was about as good as it got that year for Judge, who hit .179 and had a 61 OPS-plus in 95 plate appearances and 84 at-bats. He struck out 42 times, or exactly half those at-bats.

The Yankees organization was high on Judge, but there were pockets of uncertainty. He’d never hit more than 20 homers in a minor league season. There was that big, looping swing. There were more than a few who believed Greg Bird — or even Tyler Austin — might have a bigger upside.