With his 50th and 51st home runs of this season, Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has joined some seriously elite company.
Judge reached the plateau for the fourth time of his career in the Yankees game against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday when he slapped an opposite field home run in the second inning. He later added his second on the night in the eighth with a solo shot.
Judge is the fourth player to reach the 50-homer threshold in 2025, joining Cal Raleigh, Kyle Schwarber and Shohei Ohtani.
But it doesn’t stop there. With four 50-homer seasons, Judge now ties Babe Ruth (1920, 1921, 1927 and 1928), Mark McGwire (1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999) and Sammy Sosa (1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001) at that mark. Just 33, Judge has plenty of career left in which to have a fifth 50-homer season, setting the record for himself.
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There have been just two other seasons in MLB history featuring four players with at least 50 home runs. In 1998, Greg Vaughn launched 50 homers for the NL champion Padres; Ken Griffey Jr. matched his own franchise record with the Mariners with 56 dingers; and both the Cubs‘ Sosa (66 HRs) and the Cardinals‘ McGwire (70) shot past Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in a year.
In 2001, Rangers‘ shortstop Alex Rodriguez had 52; Luis Gonzalez of the eventual World Series champion Diamondbacks hit 57; Sosa launched 64; and Giants‘ star Barry Bonds mashed 73 homers to break McGwire’s short-lived record.
In 2025, Raleigh leads the majors with 58 homers, while Schwarber has hit 56 and Ohtani has 53. Ohtani reached the 50-homer mark for the second time in his career on Sept. 16, when he became the first-ever player to hit 50 home runs and strike out 50 batters in the same season.
Earlier in 2025, Judge became the fastest-ever player to 350 career home runs, when he bested Mark McGwire’s pace of 1,280 games in 192 fewer contests. He can also become the fastest to 400 career home runs, also held by McGwire, if he can reach that mark before his 1,412th game.
Judge also moved into fifth and then fourth place on the Yankees’ career home runs list in 2025, first passing Yogi Berra with his 359th home run, then Joe DiMaggio with 362. Next up is Lou Gehrig, with 493 career homers.
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