Aaron Judge and the Road to 400 Home Runs
He went on the injured list May 31 with a rib stress fracture, sitting at 385 career home runs. Fifteen from 400. A late August return is the target. When he comes back, one of the most anticipated milestone chases in recent Yankees history picks up right where it left off.
Aaron Judge has hit home runs the way few players in the sport's history have. He hit 52 as a rookie in 2017. He hit 62 in 2022 — the American League record, passing Roger Maris, the most home runs any player in the history of the league has ever hit in a single season. He was on pace for another 50-plus year in 2026 when the rib stress fracture ended his spring in late May.
Now he is 15 home runs from 400 career, cleared for outdoor running and upper-body activity as of mid-August, with a return window targeting the last week of the month. The Yankees are in the AL Wild Card race. Every home run he hits from now on goes toward a number that fewer than 60 players in the history of the sport have ever reached.
Where 400 Puts Him
The 400 home run club is one of baseball's most exclusive marks. A player can spend fifteen or twenty seasons in the major leagues and never come close. It requires a combination of power, durability, and longevity that has filtered out most players who have ever swung a bat at the professional level.
| Player | Career HR | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Barry Bonds | 762 | All-time record |
| Hank Aaron | 755 | Led the record for 33 years |
| Babe Ruth | 714 | The standard for 39 years |
| Alex Rodriguez | 696 | Highest-ever at retirement among active retirements |
| Willie Mays | 660 | Greatest all-around player in history by most accounts |
| Ken Griffey Jr. | 630 | The pure swing of a generation |
| Jim Thome | 612 | Quietest 600-HR career in history |
| Sammy Sosa | 609 | |
| Frank Robinson | 586 | Only player to win MVP in both leagues |
| Mark McGwire | 583 | |
| Harmon Killebrew | 573 | The Killer |
| Rafael Palmeiro | 569 | |
| Reggie Jackson | 563 | Mr. October |
| Manny Ramirez | 555 | |
| Mike Schmidt | 548 | Greatest third baseman who ever played |
| Aaron Judge | 385 (active) | AL record 62 HRs in 2022 |
Judge is not yet 35 years old. If he stays healthy — always the variable — he will clear 400 during the 2026 season and eventually be discussed among the greats of this category. His 2022 season alone, 62 home runs in the American League, places him in a conversation that very few players ever enter. The question was never whether he could reach 400. The question is whether the rib injury cost him enough time that it happens this year or next.
The Injury and the Timeline
Judge went on the injured list May 31 with a rib stress fracture — a diagnosis that required patience more than surgery. Rib stress fractures are not the kind of injury that responds to a timeline pushed. The ribs carry the rotation of a baseball swing, and until the bone heals, there is no baseball to be played.
He was cleared for outdoor running and upper-body workouts in mid-August. The target return window is late August, with September 1 as a reasonable benchmark. The Yankees, sitting in the AL Wild Card race and needing every win they can get to hold their position against the Red Sox and Guardians, have been careful not to rush. But the push is on.
Judge has missed large chunks before. He missed significant time in 2018 with an oblique injury and came back healthy. He has proven, season after season, that his body responds well to return — that he doesn't need a ramp-up period before performing at full strength. When Aaron Judge is healthy and in the lineup, the Yankees' ceiling goes up. When he's on the injured list, the team is something less than it was built to be.
What a 2026 Return Could Mean for the Yankees
The Yankees entered mid-August sitting in the AL Wild Card race, needing every win to stay ahead of the Red Sox (who added Adley Rutschman) and the Guardians. The rotation has been functional. The lineup without Judge has been decent. But "decent" is not a World Series team, and the Yankees know it.
When Judge comes back — with 15 home runs still to go before 400, with the September schedule tilting toward games that matter — the story of the 2026 season shifts. The milestone watch begins. Every at-bat becomes a potential part of baseball history. Every ball he hits in the air turns 46,000 people in the Bronx into a collective held breath.
The Yankees have not won a World Series since 2009 — the most recent championship in the franchise's history. Sixteen years and counting. The team that won it featured Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, and Mariano Rivera. That clinching game — World Series Game 6, 2009, Rivera closing out the Phillies — is in the Field & Ink catalog. It remains the reference point for what a Yankees October can look like.
A Career Built on History
There is something worth noting about Judge as a record-keeper's subject. When he hit 62 home runs in 2022, he did it in a way that left no ambiguity about the record. The American League record, previously held by Roger Maris since 1961, was always the "cleaner" of the two home run records in the minds of fans who attached significance to how records were broken. Judge broke it cleanly, without controversy, in the final week of the season, in a game his team needed. Maris hit his 61st in the last game of the season. Judge hit his 62nd in game 157.
That's the career he has: each milestone lands in a moment that earns it. A Cy Young Award winner he hits it against. A full stadium on the road. A game his team eventually wins. He hasn't manufactured his place in the record books — he's played his way into it, night by night, swing by swing.
Four hundred is the next one. Late August, if the rib cooperates, Yankee Stadium will see it happen.
The last Yankees championship — on one scorecard
The 2009 World Series Game 6 — Rivera, Damon, A-Rod, and the franchise's most recent title — is in the Field & Ink catalog. Every pitch from the official play-by-play, rendered on a single page. A 300-DPI print-ready digital file. $29.
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