Aaron Judge enjoyed a tremendous season in 2022, as we all know. He secured a permanent place in baseball history by hitting 62 home runs for the New York Yankees, establishing a new American League record.
But Judge’s year would have been even more amazing if he had somehow scratched out four more singles.
Judge finished with a .311 batting average, second-best in the AL to the .316 by Luis Arraez of the Minnesota Twins. Four more hits would have boosted Judge to .318 (rounded up from .31754), thereby linking a batting title to his league-leading totals for homers and runs batted in (131 of the latter).
And that, of course, would have added up to a Triple Crown.
Only 16 batters have simultaneously topped the American or National League in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in. Nobody has done it since Miguel Cabrera in 2012, and only Cabrera has done it since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.
That translates to two Triple Crowns in the past 56 years — and only 16 winners in a total of 269 seasons (122 AL, 147 NL).
Judge was one of two American League batters to finish among the top 10 in all three Triple Crown stats. The other was Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros with a .306 average (fourth in that category), 37 homers (third) and 97 RBIs (fifth).
Two National Leaguers did the same on their side of the majors — Paul Goldschmidt of the St. Louis Cardinals (third in BA, fifth in HR, second in RBI) and Manny Machado of the San Diego Padres (fourth in BA, ninth in HR, sixth in RBI).
I’ve put together an index to measure this year’s batters against the Triple Crown standard, using the same scale that’s employed for Most Valuable Player voting. The leading batter in each category gets 14 points, the runner-up gets nine, and each subsequent member of the top 10 steps down another point.
The results are unsurprising in the American League, where Judge obliterated his competition with 37 points of a possible 42. Alvaraez finished a distant second with 21 points.
The National League’s race ended in a tie. Pete Alonso of the New York Mets topped the league with 131 runs batted in, and he finished second in home runs with 40. His batting average of .271 fell short of the top 10, but the other two categories brought him 23 points. That equaled the total for Goldschmidt, based on his performances described above.
The complete Triple Crown standings can be found below. Each batter is followed in parentheses by his batting average, home runs, and runs batted in.
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American League
1. Aaron Judge, New York Yankees (.311/62/131), 37 points
2. Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros (.306/37/97), 21 points
3. Luis Arraez, Minnesota Twins (.316/8/49), 14 points
4. Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels (.273/34/95), 11 points
5. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto Blue Jays (.274/32/97), 10 points
6. Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Guardians (.280/29/126), 9 points
6. Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (.283/40/80), 9 points
8. Kyle Tucker, Houston Astros (.257/30/107), 8 points
8. Xander Bogaerts, Boston Red Sox (.307/15/73), 8 points
10. Adolis Garcia, Texas Rangers (.250/27/101), 7 points
10. Anthony Santander, Baltimore Orioles (.240/33/89), 7 points
12. Corey Seager, Texas Rangers (.245/33/83), 6 points
12. Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox (.304/15/75), 6 points
12. Andrew Benintendi, Kansas City Royals-New York Yankees (.304/5/51), 6 points
15. Nathaniel Lowe, Texas Rangers (.302/27/76), 4 points
15. Anthony Rizzo, New York Yankees (.224/32/75), 4 points
17. Bo Bichette, Toronto Blue Jays (.290/24/93), 3 points
17. Alex Bregman, Houston Astros (.259/23/93), 3 points
17. Jose Altuve, Houston Astros (.300/28/57), 3 points
20. Eugenio Suarez, Seattle Mariners (.236/31/87), 2 points
20. Steven Kwan, Cleveland Guardians (.298/6/52), 2 points
20. Giancarlo Stanton, New York Yankees (.211/31/78), 2 points
23. Randy Arozarena, Tampa Bay Rays (.263/20/89), 1 point
23. Andres Gimenez, Cleveland Guardians (.297/17/69), 1 point
National League
1. Pete Alonso, New York Mets (.271/40/131), 23 points
1. Paul Goldschmidt, St. Louis Cardinals (.317/35/115), 23 points
3. Manny Machado, San Diego Padres (.298/32/102), 14 points
3. Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies (.218/46/94), 14 points
3. Jeff McNeil, New York Mets (.326/9/62), 14 points
6. Nolan Arenado, St. Louis Cardinals (.293/30/103), 12 points
6. Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles Dodgers (.325/21/100), 12 points
8. Matt Olson, Atlanta Braves (.240/34/103), 10 points
8. Trea Turner, Los Angeles Dodgers (.298/21/100), 10 points
10. Francisco Lindor, New York Mets (.270/26/107), 8 points
10. Austin Riley, Atlanta Braves (.273/38/93), 8 points
12. Christian Walker, Arizona Diamondbacks (.242/36/94), 7 points
13. Rowdy Tellez, Milwaukee Brewers (.219/35/89), 6 points
13. Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers (.269/35/82), 6 points
15. C.J. Cron, Colorado Rockies (.257/29/102), 5 points
16. Starling Marte, New York Mets (.292/16/63), 4 points
17. Nico Hoerner, Chicago Cubs (.281/10/55), 3 points
18. Willy Adames, Milwaukee Brewers (.238/31/98), 2 points
18. Alec Bohm, Philadelphia Phillies (.280/13/72), 2 points
20. Justin Turner, Los Angeles Dodgers (.278/13/81), 1 point