MLB history was made Monday afternoon at Yankee Stadium as rookie phenom Aaron Judge hit his 50th home run of the season, setting a new rookie record. He officially beat Mark McGwire's record of 49 Home Runs as a rookie with a solo shot to left field in the bottom of the 7th, his second big fly of the day. The 25-year-old slugger has already accomplished a Home Run Derby win this past year and is on his way to likely being AL Rookie of the Year and getting some MVP votes. Not to mention him and his team will be heading to the postseason in a week.

With a week left in the season, he has an opportunity to hit a few more home runs and make the new record he set even higher of a feat to overtake for anyone in the future. McGwire's rookie home run record of 49 was set in 1987 which makes Judge pass him exactly 30 years later.

Judge's season

Judge maintained his rookies status in 2017 seeing as he only played in 27 games last season when he made his MLB debut. He took the league by storm in the first half in which he slashed .329/.448/1.139 with 30 home runs and 197 wRC+ in 83 games. He was elected to the All-Star game and participated in the Home Run Derby, who beat Justin Bour, Cody Bellinger and Miguel Sano to win the tournament with 47 total home runs.

One of his blasts in the final round went 480 feet which brought the crowd at Marlins Park to its feet.

While he has put up 20 more home runs in the second half, Judge hit some tough slumps. In August he hit three home runs and batted only .185 and struck out 41 times. However, he brought his way out of his slumps and in September has hit 13 home runs so far as he climbed his way to the rookie home run record.

He is getting hot again just in time for the postseason as the Yankees just clinched a spot in October.

He is now slashing .282/.418/1.037 with 50 home runs and 108 RBIs in 150 games. Going into this afternoon, him and Astros' Jose Altuve were tied with a 7.3 Fangraphs Wins Above Replacement (fWAR), which is the highest in baseball.

This kid will certainly get MVP votes and very well could win it considering Mike Trout has missed a lot of time this season.

What is next for him

He has accomplished so much in his rookie year and has a lot ahead of him. At only 25 and on a young revamped Yankees team that is postseason bound, it seems like it is only a matter of time before he gets his first World Series ring. No matter how long that takes, expect to rise for the Judge as he makes All-Star teams and contends for MVP awards and Silver Sluggers for years to come.

Congrats to Aaron Judge.
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