If Not Now, When

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Congratulations! We’ve made it through another spring training, where nothing really matters for the players except coming out healthy, especially for pitching staffs.

Now the real pressure begins, starting Wednesday night when the Yankees open the MLB season in San Francisco against the mediocre Giants.

No player in Major League Baseball, perhaps no player in the history of MLB, has more pressure on him than Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has on him this season.

Here’s why.

It is a World Series win or bust for Judge and the Yankees and Judge must lead the way. Second place is no place to finish October. Aaron Judge is a three-time MVP winner, only the fourth Yankee to win three MVPs. Notice I didn’t say “collect MVPs.’’

You don’t collect an MVP, you win it.

The other Yankees to win three Most Valuable Player awards are Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle; that’s Yankee Royalty.

No Yankee has ever won four MVPs, something Judge could do in 2026.

But here is the rub, here is why I say the pressure is on Judge more than ever to deliver the first championship to the Bronx since 2009. DiMaggio, Berra and Mantle, the three Yankees to have won three MVPs, won a combined 26 World Championships.

That’s right, 26. Aaron Judge has zero. No World Series titles.

DiMaggio won nine World Series. Berra won 10, he is the Yankee with the most rings, and The Mick was on seven World Championship teams.

But it is even worse than that. I looked it up and 13 players have won at least three MVPs. Of those 13, 10 have won at least one World Series title, seven have won multiple titles.

Here is the complete list: Barry Bonds, seven MVPs, zero World Series titles. Shohei Ohtani, four MVPs, two World Series titles. Roy Campanella, three MVPs, one title. Berra, three MVPs, 10 titles. DiMaggio, three MVPs, nine World Series titles. Jimmie Foxx, three MVPs, two titles, back-to-back with the Philadelphia A’s in 1929-30. Judge, three MVPs, zero titles. Mantle, three MVPs, seven World Series titles. Stan Musial, three MVPs, three World Series titles. Albert Pujols, three MVPs, two World Series titles. Alex Rodriguez, three MVPs (two with the Yankees), one World Series title with those 2009 Yankees. Mike Schmidt, three MVPs, one World Series title. Mike Trout, three MVPs, zero titles, just like Aaron Judge.

As for those wondering about Babe Ruth, who won seven World Series titles, three with the Red Sox and four with the Yankees, the MVP award was not presented in its current incarnation by the Baseball Writers Association of America until 1931, and The Babe was 36 that season. The aging Sultan of Swat still hit 46 home runs but the MVP Award went to Philadelphia A’s pitcher Lefty Grove, who put together one of the greatest pitching seasons ever, going 31-4 (back when wins mattered) with a 2.06 ERA, led the league in strikeouts with 175 for the 107-win Athletics, who won their third straight AL pennant (back when pennants were the only way to get to October.)

Lou Gehrig had quite the year, too, tying Ruth for the MLB lead in home runs with 46, knocking in 185 runs, scoring 163 runs and batting .341. Lefty Grove, though, got 98 percent of the vote.

If not this year, when? The clock is ticking on Aaron Judge. He turns 34 on April 26. He will be 35 in 2027 – if there is an MLB season with a lockout looming.

These Yankees are much different now than during the MVP reign of DiMaggio, Berra and Mantle. Things have changed for the Yankees in the Judge Era. These Yankees don’t dominate like in those other eras. These are not the U.S. Steel Yankees. These Yankees are just trying to get to the “tournament’’ and then trying to win it all through the layer cake of playoff competition.

These are not dynasty Yankees of years past where the World Series title was their manifest destiny. It is a much different baseball world with many more playoff teams.

Sure, there is still the pride of the Yankees, that will not change, there will always be that element. And most every season the Yankees put on some kind October run. In 2024 they made it to the World Series with Judge, before losing to the Dodgers in five games. Last year they could not get out of the ALDS and were outplayed and outclassed by the Blue Jays, who wanted to face the Yankees and not the Red Sox.

These Yankees are not the Core Four Yankees who won titles three straight seasons, 1998, ’99, and 2000. Now it is four-time MVP winner Shohei Ohtani and the mighty Dodgers who are looking for that rare three-peat.

Judge and the Yankees are looking to play the role of spoilers, and in the process bring the Yankees back to their championship ways.

If not this year, when? The clock is ticking on Aaron Judge. He turns 34 on April 26. He will be 35 in 2027 – if there is an MLB season with a lockout looming.

So, the time is now for Aaron Judge and the Yankees, 2026 or bust.

In the final spring training game Sunday in Florida for the Yankees, Judge gave fans at Steinbrenner Field what they wanted, a laser home run in the fifth inning against the Phillies’ Aaron Nola. Judge did what he is supposed to do with an 85-mph changeup in his Homer Zone. It was a good way to end the Florida portion of spring training (a 1.242 OPS for Judge) before the Yankees take two days in the desert sun against the Cubs in Arizona and then kick off the season at Oracle Park Wednesday night on Netflix, yet another major irritation for Yankee fans who must be multi-platformed to watch their team.

Coming off the USA WBC failure where Judge was captain to a “Dream Team’’ that lost to Italy, barely made it out of pool play and then lost to underdog Venezuela in the championship game, the pressure for Judge comes with the territory.

I believe the WBC experience, in the end, will be a positive for Judge because it resets the competition gene for him. MLB players usually glide through spring training worrying only about their swing, their velocity, their spin, their health.

What the WBC does for teams is it shows in March that winning is the name of the game. That never was really needed years ago because competition used to be there on a daily basis. You had to win your job or your place in the lineup but with the advent of analytics, winning took a back seat to metrics, really one of the worst things that has happened to baseball.

Teams suddenly forgot that winning should be the goal, winning that day, winning that inning, winning that at-bat.

An army of analysts convinced – or should I say hypnotized – ownership, players and fans into believing that winning was throwing the ball a certain mph or spinning a baseball a certain number of revolutions or hitting a ball X miles per hour, and in some cases, winning, believe it or not, was striking out. They say such things as:

“The hitter didn’t give in; he took his A swing.’’

“Yes, the hitter struck out but at least he didn’t chase.’’

They also say:

“The pitcher won that at-bat because the RBI single that won the game was hit only 86 miles per hour.’’

Yep, that’s how dumb baseball has become under the Nerds.

This, of course, has been a long time coming. Competition has been put on the backburner for generations where everyone gets a trophy. I will address the loss of “compete’’ here at BallNine at a later date. To me the best thing about the WBC was the beauty of the game which was on display because all that mattered was winning or losing that day.

And there is only one winner.

MLB should have stuffed those second-place silver medals in the Rob Manfred trash. I’d like to know who came up with that idea. This isn’t the Olympics. Ultimately, there is only one WBC winner and that was Venezuela.

Finishing second, not winning, left a sour taste in Aaron Judge’s mouth. And that was the big lesson of the spring for Judge, a lesson I’m sure he brought home to his Yankee teammates.

These Yankees, Judge’s Yankees, are known for running back the same team pretty much every year and then at some key point, running out of gas. Some scouts I’ve talked to though really like this Yankee team and their pitching depth.

Aaron Judge, unlike the other three-time MVP Yankees, is still searching for his first World Series win; if not now, when?