As the Yankees near the finish of a wild and sometimes wobbly season, you hear a lot about leadership and how it separates elite teams from ones who’ve simply collected talent. Aaron Boone likes to think he’s got a mix of both in his clubhouse – superstars along with men of integrity. You put both qualities in the same uniform and, presto, there’s your leader.
So, who is that guy in the Bronx, where the scale goes from 1-to-Jeter? The obvious answer is Aaron Judge, who’s looked up to by the Yankees by virtue of his size, his talent and the fact that he’s good with people. Everyone likes Judge; that’s a given.
But there’s another quality that comes with the job description – raising teammates’ level of play. And that’s where Jeter comes in. To say he was the most respected Yankee of the Joe Torre era is also a given. What was less obvious was how The Captain ruled.
It wasn’t through bursts of anger. Jeter didn’t have a temper. He was less verbal than you’d think, considering his Q-rating. The Yankees weren’t much into team meetings during the golden era of the late 90s. They’d pretty much figured out on their own how to conduct themselves. But stray off course, even for a moment, and Jeter could cut you in two with an Arctic glare.
The Yankees all knew he was Torre’s proxy in the room. In many senses Jeter was the manager, even if he was loathe to verbalize it. What helped, of course, was being in the right place at the right time. Jeter body-surfed the greatest Yankees dynasty of the last 50 years. Those World Series – four before he was 30 – gave him permanent credibility.
Judge has had no such hot streak on his resume. Like the rest of the Baby Bombers who debuted in 2017, Judge is still looking for his first championship. The current Yankees are a billboard of a hope, not performance and it’s no exaggeration to say the reservoir of patience among the ticket buyers is bone dry.
But that doesn’t diminish Judge’s role in the clubhouse or how much he means to Boone’s credibility. But there are important difference in the leadership styles between the two front men.
While Jeter was cool and understated, Judge is earnest and welcoming. There’s nothing phony about it, either. It’s how Judge was raised. But he also learned first-hand how much it means to players – especially young ones – to be treated warmly.
Judge recalls standing in the middle of the Yankees clubhouse in 2010 just after having been drafted. Despite being a head taller than most of the major leaguers, Judge was understandably scared. He was, after all, only 18 and in his words, “a nobody.”
The Yankees were on a West coast trip and had invited Judge to pay a visit to the clubhouse – say hello, rub elbows with the stars, get his first taste of life in The Show.
But Judge could barely move a muscle, too intimidated to do much else besides breathe. It was CC Sabathia, feeling sorry for the freaked-out outsider, who rescued him.
“CC called me over to his locker and started talking to me like we were friends,” Judge recalled. “He was asking me where I was from, where I’d played (college ball), questions about my family. He treated me like a teammate, which he didn’t have to do. I never forgot it. I realized that’s why everyone respected CC, because he treated the people around him with respect.”
Judge is that person today, which is why everyone in the game – opponents, clubhouse personnel, even the umpires – hold him in such high esteem. So, when it’s time for the Yankees to find that extra gear Boone knows who he can turn to.
“We have a lot of guys who share in that, but I’ve definitely seen Judge become more and more of a leader,” Boone said. That’s critical to the Yankees’ chemistry, as Boone is more of a friend to the Yankees than, say, Torre was to his team. Judge fills in gaps that Jeter never had to.
Still, leadership and camaraderie can only take you so far; talent is still the game’s most crucial currency. As A’s executive Billy Beane once told me, “No team in history has ever lost 100 games, and the GM said, ‘You know what? They’re a great bunch of guys, they’ve really got along, had good chemistry, I’m bringing them all back next year’, because that’s not how it works.
“You lose 100 games, you’ve done something wrong, and you’ve got to shake it up.”
The Yankees don’t have to worry about bottoming out, although they’re still looking for the elusive prize. That’s why Boone talks about pulling in the same direction. That’s manager-speak for maximizing the talent Beane was referring to.
Just like Jeter helped Torre, Judge is doing the same for Boone. We’ll see if the formula finally works this time around.
Bob Klapisch may be reached at bklapisch@njadvancemedia.com.
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