Judge Runs This Joint.

Not even the mighty Ohtani can keep up

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We don’t have to get too deep in the weeds on this, since almost any numbers that I post run the risk of being outdated by the time you read them. But we can say this much without fear of being contradicted: For all the conversation around the two greatest offensive forces in baseball, that competition isn’t particularly close right now.

Since the other guy in the equation is Shohei Ohtani, the whole thing already sounds like sacrilege. I’m telling you, though: What Aaron Judge is doing on offense is so elite that he has a genuine, sizable gap over Ohtani, who may be the one unicorn baseball player of our lifetimes.

It’s that dramatic. As we swing into mid-June, Judge remains in pursuit of the .400 club, a members-only collection whose most recent inductee was Ted Williams in 1941. As we discussed several weeks ago, a .400 season batting average isn’t likely to happen even under the most forgiving of circumstances, and an era in which pitchers are almost completely dominating hitters does not qualify as forgiving. Still, what Judge is doing is insane.

We’ve also dissected the royalty of Ohtani, easily the best $700 million spent on payroll in the history of Major League Baseball. The Japanese sensation is just beginning a return-to-play pitching regimen, so it is possible that we’ll get to see Ohtani on the mound this season — another reminder of why he’s so special.

Ohtani is also an offensive monster. No other way to say it. At times, it appears impossible to pitch to him, and his numbers so far in 2025 certainly suggest that most guys are failing at that pretty broadly.

With that said, take a look at this comparison (all stats through Wednesday, June 11):

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Ohtani: .290 AVG, .383 OBP, 1.008 OPS

Judge: .394 AVG, .490 OBP, 1.269 OPS

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Ohtani: 78 H, 23 HR, 39 RBI

Judge: 98 H, 25 HR, 59 RBI

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Ohtani: 41 BB, 8 IBB, 77 SO

Judge: 45 BB, 14 IBB, 68 SO

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A couple of notable things here, aside from the obvious, which is that these are cartoonishly stratospheric numbers. First, both players have walk-to-strikeout ratios that partially explain their success; each man is willing to take that walk rather than chase pitches out of the strike zone. Second, at the MLB level, any player with an on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) of even .800 is having a good season. League average OPS in 2024 was .711. These guys, Ohtani and Judge, are absolutely crushing it at 1.008 and 1.269, respectively.

(By the way, there’s a third MLB player at 1.000 OPS so far in 2025, an elite performance. I was going to make you guess, but it’s more fun to tell you that it is Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh, who has the all-time nickname of Big Dumper, bestowed upon him by a minor league teammate, Jarred Kelenic. It’s on account of Raleigh’s big butt.)

But just run back through those Ohtani-Judge side-by-sides, would you? Isn’t that astounding? Ohtani is an otherworldly offensive player, and Judge is blowing him out of the water on just about every front. Ohtani has played in 67 games, Judge in 66. This is pure comparison of performance, and Aaron Judge is dominant.

Is Judge lapping the field? Nope — he can’t do so, as long as Ohtani is also part of that field. If you’ve read The Dope more than once or twice, though, you know that we lean heavily toward the idea of appreciating something incredible while it’s right in front of you. Watch Shohei Ohtani, sure. Don’t miss that chance. He’s a cultural phenomenon and a brilliant baseball player. But the best offensive force in the game lives in New York.