The American League East hasn’t seen a slugging tandem to the likes of Yankees’ outfielders Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in nearly a decade. But the division’s most renowned power duo believes New York’s combo is still several steps away from reaching legendary status.Â
In an interview with Sports Illustrated on Tuesday, former Red Sox slugger David Ortiz was asked if the Judge-Stanton package compares to Boston’s pairing of Ortiz and Manny Ramirez during the mid-2000’s.Â
According to Ortiz, Judge and Stanton have the talent. But Big Papi believes there was more to his game than the home runs.Â
“They are very powerful. That’s one thing that I can tell you right now,” Ortiz told SI.com of Judge and Stanton. “They have tremendous power. But I still — there’s one thing that me and Manny accomplished as a hitter, and we wasn’t just power hitters. We were guys capable of hitting for average, putting the ball in play, getting on base. It was a lot of things that when we combined, not for one or two years, we did it for a lot of years. I think these two guys, they have the talent to get there, cut down strikeouts, put the ball more in play. I know that right now, with the plane thing, for the swing they’re trying to put the ball more in the air is something that’s going to create more strikeouts, especially for power hitters.”
In six seasons together (2003-08), Ortiz and Ramirez combined to hit .301 with 431 homers, 429 doubles, 1,017 walks, and 1,367 RBI. The duo also attended five consecutive All-Star Games, finished fourth or higher in American League MVP voting seven times, and won two World Series championships with the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007.Â
However, Boston’s power pair didn’t strike out that much. The most strikeouts that Ortiz and Ramirez ever had in a full season combined was 257 back in 2004. Just last season, Judge and Stanton struck out a combined 371 times.
Although Ortiz and Ramirez were already established major leaguers before their arrival to Boston, Ortiz believes Judge is capable of reducing his strikeout rate, which could alter the defending American League Rookie of the Year’s career trajectory.
“I think that Aaron Judge is a guy that he can cut down on strikeouts, because he’s got good eyes,” Ortiz told SI.com. “You see his on-base percentage was so good, even striking out 200 times, think about this guy 50 of those 200 times that he strikes out, he try to put the ball in play. It’s going to help him with batting average, it’s going to help him with producing more. There’s a lot of things. We’ll see how it plays out in the long run.”
In 2005, Ortiz and Ramirez hit a combined 92 home runs with 292 RBI. In 2017, Judge and Stanton (on separate teams) combined for 111 homers and 246 RBI.
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