All Rise as Judge’s next historic season begins for the Yankees

The New York Yankees have started off their 2026 season with a red-hot start. For the first time in franchise history, they started off a season with back-to-back shutouts. Both Max Fried and Cam Schlittler are spearheading a fantastic pitching rotation. 

At bat, the sole leader of this team finally came to life in the second game of the year. Aaron Judge launched his first home run of 2026, and it was a moonshot down the left-field line. As great as it may be for him to not make that 0-5 performance on opening night a recurring thing, there is one stat that should scare Yankees fans. 

Let's talk about it. 

Judge is on a historic pace

Now up to six strikeouts in two games, Judge is on pace to absolutely shatter the record for most strikeouts in one season. In 2009, Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Mark Reynolds struck out 233 times. Right now, No. 99 in pinstripes is on pace to strike out 486 times. 

Obviously, that is very unlikely to reach that high a number, but the possibility of Reynolds' record being broken is definitely there. Over the next 160 games, Judge is going to get a ton more at-bats, and with that comes the possibility of being sat down on strikes. 

This Yankees lineup is stellar, meaning that it will go around the order more often than not over the course of the nine-inning game. Judge's career-high is 208 strikeouts, which is not all that far from Reynolds.