No matter how great one player is, it takes an entire organization to win a World Series title. From Ted Williams and Ty Cobb to Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr., a long list of Hall of Famers and baseball superstars finished their careers without their team ever sitting on top of the throne.
If things don’t change quickly for the Yankees, Aaron Judge may be in peril of joining that list of ringless legends. Judge, now 34, hasn’t been healthy enough to play in New York’s 2026 postseason run.
Now trailing the Rays in the ALDS, the Yankees are on the brink of another postseason exit in the Judge era — despite one World Series appearance and three ALCS berths, New York has consistently come up short.
Here’s a look at the Yankees’ postseason history with Judge over the past decade.
Yankees playoff results in Aaron Judge era
2017: Lost to Astros in ALCS
After missing the postseason in 2016, in Judge’s rookie year, New York finished with a wild-card berth behind their young slugger’s 52-homer season.
It wound up being one of the Yankees’ deepest October runs of the Judge era. After beating the Twins in the AL Wild Card game and Cleveland in the ALDS, New York pushed the Astros to the limit, winning three consecutive games in the ALCS to take a 3-2 series lead.
Houston, though, rode Justin Verlander to a Game 6 win, then shut out the Yankees 4-0 in Game 7. After coming within a win of the World Series, the Yankees’ season ended in the ALCS.
2018: Lost to Red Sox in ALDS
Despite winning 100 games in the regular season, the Yankees were a wild-card team in 2018, and their postseason run did not last long.
A lineup featuring six 20-homer-hitters fell to the eventual champion Red Sox in the ALDS after winning a one-game Wild Card matchup against the A’s. In Aaron Boone’s first season at the helm, New York had plenty of regular-season success, a potent lineup and a collection of veteran starters, but Boston won the ALDS in four games, including a 16-1 Game 3 win.
2019: Lost to Astros in ALCS
The Yankees won the AL East for the first time in the Judge era in 2019, winning 103 games to best their 2018 total. Again, they appeared set for a deep postseason run, sweeping the Twins in the ALDS to reach another ALCS against the Astros.
Again, however, the Jose Altuve-Gerrit Cole-Alex Bregman era Astros got the best of the Yankees. Houston won the series in six games, capped by Altuve’s walk-off home run off Aroldis Chapman to win Game 6 and go to the World Series.
2020: Lost to Rays in ALDS
In the shortened 2020 season, the Yankees grabbed another wild-card spot after winning 33 of 60 games.
Their postseason result looked similar to prior years: a Wild Card sweep over Cleveland, but an ALDS loss to the Rays. In the decisive Game 5, Judge homered, but that was the Yankees’ lone run as Chapman allowed a homer to Mike Brosseau in the eighth that ultimately won it for the Rays.
2021: Lost to Red Sox in AL Wild Card
The Yankees grabbed another Wild Card spot in 2021 after a 93-win season. This time, though, they didn’t reach the ALDS.
In the one-game playoff, Nathan Eovaldi went a strong 5.1 innings for the Red Sox, while Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Schwarber both homered in a 6-2 win for Boston.
2022: Lost to Astros in ALCS
For the third time in six years, the Yankees lost to the same pesky Astros squad in the ALCS in 2022.
This time, it wasn’t particularly close. New York, which won 99 games in the regular season and beat the Guardians in the ALDS, was swept by Houston. Verlander, Framber Valdez and Christian Javier silenced the Yankees’ bats, while Chas McCormick and Jeremy Pena both homered twice in the series.
2024: Lost to Dodgers in World Series
The Yankees finally broke through to the Fall Classic in 2024, their first World Series appearance since winning in 2009 and first with Judge. But in a star-studded matchup, they couldn’t quite get the long-awaited ring.
New York bounced back from missing the postseason in 2023 by winning 94 games and taking down the Royals in the ALDS, then Guardians in the ALCS. But the Yankees then ran into arguably the most dominant team in baseball of the era, the Dodgers.
Los Angeles quickly took a 3-0 series lead behind Shohei Ohtani, a Game 1 walk-off home run from Freddie Freeman, and strong pitching from Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. By the time the Yankees won Game 4 with 11 runs, it was far too late.
The Dodgers took Game 5, 7-6, after scoring two late runs, with Ohtani winning his first World Series title.
2025: Lost to Blue Jays in ALDS
Last year, the Yankees fell to an AL East rival in the postseason for the fourth time in the Judge era.
After Judge won his third MVP in the regular season, the Yankees did take down the Red Sox in the AL Wild Card series — partially due to a dominant Game 3 start from Cam Schlittler — but they didn’t find as much success against Toronto in the next round.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led a dominant Blue Jays lineup to a 3-1 series win in the ALDS, sending the Yankees home early. In all three of Judge’s MVP seasons (2022, 2024, 2025) the Yankees couldn’t get him a ring.
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