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LOS ANGELES — Every two weeks, from 2017 through the 2024 season, Richard Schenck visited Aaron Judge to help refine his superstar pupil’s swing. But they haven’t met at all this season. There hasn’t been a need.

“The darn swing is pretty much automatic,” said Schenck, a hitting instructor based in Missouri. “There’s no thinking anymore. There’s just see ball, hit ball. And when he swings the bat, the good swing comes out. No tuneup needed.”

Thorough upkeeping isn’t required as Judge builds on the best 13-month regular-season stretch from a right-handed hitter in Major League Baseball history. There are a few reasons for the New York Yankees slugger’s otherworldly success — from swing optimization to accumulated experience — but there’s one factor that matters most: Judge, a towering behemoth hampered by injuries early in his career, is staying on the field as he enters his mid-30s.

“I think that’s the biggest thing, is getting a chance to just play every single day and I can make those adjustments,” said Judge, who celebrated his 33rd birthday last month and became a father in January. “If I have a couple bad games, I can make an adjustment, figure it out and get to work.

“When you get hurt, your main focus is getting back on the field and when you get back on the field now it’s, ‘My swing ain’t right’ because I’ve missed out on 120, 150 at-bats. So, I think that’s been the biggest thing for me.”

Judge crushed 52 home runs in 155 games as a rookie in 2017, but injuries followed. From 2018, Judge’s second full season, through the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, the slugger appeared in just 63% of the Yankees’ regular-season games. He landed on the injured list four times with wrist, oblique and calf injuries (plus another stint after a positive COVID-19 test).

From the start of the 2021 season through the Yankees’ 1-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday, he has appeared in 89% of their games. The percentage would be higher were it not for a freak injury nearly two years ago.

This weekend, the Yankees return to Dodger Stadium for a World Series rematch against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was here, in June 2023, that Judge suffered a torn ligament in his right big toe crashing into a bullpen gate in right field to make a catch. Judge missed 42 games. The Yankees, consequently, crashed without him. They didn’t reach the postseason and nearly finished below .500 for the first time in more than 30 years. He hasn’t been on the injured list since.

For all the jaw-dropping numbers, Yankees manager Aaron Boone believes Judge’s ability to remain in the lineup is where the two-time American League MVP has shown the most growth.

“I think it really pissed him off,” Boone said of Judge consistently missing time. “The thing he’s done so well the last few years is there’s been days where he’s played every day, where in the past I would’ve given him a day. He knows how to do that now.”

Keeping healthy means Judge isn’t stopping and starting, again and again. He’s not constantly looking to find his swing, his rhythm, his confidence. He is making revisions on the fly, incorporating what he has learned and barreling forward, punishing pitchers in the process.

“It’s all about staying on the field,” Judge said. “You stay on the field and you’re going to produce. And I was kind of sick and tired of having little nagging things that kind of pop up throughout the season. So if I was going to do something that my team could rely on for quite a few years, you can’t be playing only 100 games a year. So I made a couple of changes and here we are.”

Among those changes, Judge said he began avoiding sweets and hired a year-round chef. To maintain his explosiveness, he incorporates jumping into his workouts and makes sure to reach his top speed during his pregame routine. Listed at 6-foot-7, 282 pounds, an unprecedented size for an every-day outfielder, Judge said he has reached out to football players for advice on staying healthy as he grows older.

“Nobody to put on record,” Judge said with a grin when asked if he could share any names. “But you see around the sport, there’s a lot of guys that play into their 40s and continue to play at a high level and that’s kind of something I wanted.

“I invest in, if it’s trainers, food, paying for a chef. It may seem like that’s an expense you don’t need to pay for, but I think it all works out. You get to the back end, if it’s going to help me play another 30 games or if it’s another three years, I’ll take anything.”

Judge enters Friday’s series opener in Los Angeles as the early favorite to win his third AL MVP Award in four seasons. He claimed his first in 2022 when he clubbed an AL-record 62 home runs. He earned it again last season when he moved to center field to accommodate Juan Soto despite a relatively sluggish start. This year, back in right field without Soto around, he’s better than ever, batting .395 with 18 home runs and a 1.234 OPS — and playing in all 54 games for the first-place Yankees.

First baseman Paul Goldschmidt, one of Judge’s new teammates this season, won the 2022 National League MVP Award with the St. Louis Cardinals in his age-34 season. He’s one of 16 players to win an MVP at that age or older. He understands the work necessary to maintain elite performance. How the body changes and the grind becomes increasingly difficult as the years pass.

“What he’s doing is amazing,” Goldschmidt said. “It’s definitely harder as you get older and you’re in your mid- or late 30s. I think it can obviously still be done and guys have produced at a high level. And I think he can and will do that. It’s like almost Barry Bondish where it’s like he’s getting one pitch to hit a game and he’s hitting it. Everyone knows he’s one of the best, if not the best hitter on the planet.”

Since April 27 of last year, Judge leads the majors with a mind-blowing 244 wRC+ — (Shohei Ohtani‘s 178 is second) and 15.8 fWAR (Bobby Witt Jr. is second with 11.7) during the regular season. He’s hitting .365 with 72 home runs, 178 RBIs and a 1.253 OPS in 186 games while missing just four. It’s an output not seen since peak Bonds in the early 2000s. And they’re numbers the Yankees did not envision before Judge’s historic 2022 season.

Back then, with Judge coming off his first healthy campaign in four years and entering his platform season, the club offered him a seven-year, $213.5 million contract extension. Judge rejected the offer. The next winter — an 11.1 fWAR season and 62 home runs later — he declined more money on the West Coast to sign a nine-year, $360 million deal to return to the Bronx as the Yankees’ captain.

It was, at the time, the highest average annual salary ever given to a position player. Judge was about to commence his age-31 season. His injury history indicated the Yankees were taking a risk. But it has proved to be among the shrewdest bargains in the sport because, above all, Judge is staying on the field.

“Going back to a couple of years before I signed my deal, I never wanted to be a guy that was on the IL for the whole deal,” Judge said. “I wanted to be a guy that the team could depend on. I wanted to be a cornerstone person that when people come to the ballpark and when they turn on the game to watch the Yankees, I’m there every single night. So, I just want to take pride in that and take pride in my work.”

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Ichiro shows funny side, joins CC, Wagner in HOF

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Ichiro shows funny side, joins CC, Wagner in HOF

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, one of five new members of baseball’s hallowed institution.

After enduring the baseball tradition known as a rain delay, the five speeches went off without a hitch as the deluge subsided and the weather became hot and humid. Joining Suzuki were pitchers CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, and sluggers Dick Allen and Dave Parker, both of whom were enshrined posthumously.

“For the third time, I am a rookie,” Suzuki said, delivering his comments in English despite his long preference for conducting his public appearances in Japanese with the aid of an interpreter.

For the American audience, this provided a rare glimpse into Suzuki’s playful side. Teammates long spoke of his sense of humor behind the closed doors of the clubhouse — something the public rarely saw — but it was on full display Sunday.

When Hall voting was announced, Suzuki fell one vote shy of becoming the second unanimous selection for the Hall. He thanked the writers for their support — with an exception.

“Three-thousand [career] hits or 262 hits in one season are achievements recognized by the writers,” Suzuki said. “Except, oh, one of you.”

After the laughter subsided, Suzuki mentioned the gracious comments he made when balloting results were announced, when he offered to invite the writer who didn’t vote for him home for dinner to learn his reasoning. Turns out, it’s too late.

“The offer to the one writer to have dinner at my home has now … expired!” Suzuki said.

Suzuki’s attention to detail and unmatched work ethic have continued into the present day, more than five years since he played his last big league game. That was central to his message Sunday, at least when he wasn’t landing a joke.

“If you consistently do the little things, there’s no limit to what you can achieve,” Suzuki said. “Look at me. I’m 5-11 and 170 pounds. When I came to America, many people said I was too skinny to compete with bigger major leaguers.”

After becoming one of the biggest stars in Japanese baseball, hitting .353 over nine seasons for the Orix BlueWave, Suzuki exploded on the scene as a 27-year-old rookie for the Seattle Mariners, batting .350 and winning the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP honors.

Chants of “Ichiro!” that once were omnipresent at Mariners games erupted from the crowd sprawled across the grounds of the complex while the all-time single-season hits leader (262 in 2004) posed with his plaque alongside commissioner Rob Manfred and Hall of Fame chairman Jane Forbes Clark.

Despite his late start in MLB, Suzuki finished with 3,089 hits in the majors and 4,367 including his time in Japan. Suzuki listed some of his feats, such as the hit total, and his 10 Gold Gloves.

“Not bad,” he said.

Sabathia’s weekend got off to a mildly rough start when his wife’s car broke down shortly after the family caravan departed for Cooperstown. They arrived in plenty of time though, and Sabathia was greeted warmly by numerous Yankees fans who made the trip.

After breaking in with Cleveland at age 20, Sabathia rocketed to stardom with a 17-5 rookie season. Alas, that came in 2001, the same year that Suzuki landed in the American League.

“Thank you most of all to the great players sitting behind me,” Sabathia said. “I am so proud and humbled to join you as a Hall of Famer, even Ichiro, who stole my Rookie of the Year Award in 2001.”

Sabathia focused the bulk of his comments on the support he has received over the years from his friends and family, especially his wife, Amber.

“The first time we met was at a house party when I was a junior in high school,” Sabathia said. “We spent the whole night talking, and that conversation has been going on for 29 years.”

Parker, 74, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease on June 28, less than a month before the induction ceremony. Representing him at the dais was his son, Dave Parker II, and though the moment was bittersweet, it was hardly somber.

Parker II finished the speech with a moving poem written by his father that, for a few minutes, made it feel as if the player nicknamed “The Cobra” were present.

“Thanks for staying by my side,” Parker’s poem concluded. “I told y’all Cooperstown would be my last rap, so the star of Dave will be in the sky tonight. Watch it glow. But I didn’t lie in my documentary — I told you I wouldn’t show.”

Parker finished with 2,712 hits and 339 homers, won two Gold Gloves on the strength of his legendary right-field arm and was named NL MVP in 1978. He spent his first 11 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and entered the Hall representing the Bucs.

Wagner, whose 422 career saves ranks eighth on the all-time list, delivered an emotional but humorous speech about a small-town guy with a small-for-a-pitcher 5-foot-10 stature who made it big.

“I feel like my baseball life has come full circle,” Wagner said. “I was a fan before I could play. Back when baseball wasn’t so available on TV, every Saturday morning I watched Johnny Bench and so many of the other greats on a show ‘The Baseball Bunch.'”

In one of the moments of baseball serendipity that only Cooperstown can provide, the telecast flashed to Bench, sitting a few feet away from where Wagner was speaking.

Allen’s widow, Willa, delivered a touching tribute to her late husband, who died in 2020 after years of feeling overlooked for his outstanding career. The 1964 NL Rookie of the Year for the Phillies, Allen won the 1972 AL MVP for the Chicago White Sox.

“Baseball was his first love,” Willa said. “He used to say, ‘I’d have played for nothing,’ and I believe he meant it. But of course, if you compare today’s salary, he played almost for nothing.”

Willa focused on the softer side of a player who in his time was perhaps unfairly characterized for a contentious relationship with the media.

“He was devoted to people, not just fans, but especially his teammates,” Willa said. “If he heard someone was sick or going through a tough time, he’ll turn to me and say, ‘Willa, they have to hear from us.'”

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Braves get starting pitcher Fedde from Cardinals

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Braves get starting pitcher Fedde from Cardinals

The Atlanta Braves acquired veteran starting pitcher Erick Fedde from the St. Louis Cardinals for a player to be named later or cash, both teams announced Sunday.

As part of the deal, the Cardinals will cover the majority of what remains of Fedde’s $7.5 million salary for 2025, a source told ESPN.

Fedde, 32, is a free agent at season’s end, making him a surprising pickup for a Braves team that was swept by the Texas Rangers over the weekend and is 16 games below .500, trailing the first-place New York Mets by 16½ games.

But the Braves have sustained a slew of injuries to their starting rotation of late, with AJ Smith-Shawver (torn ulnar collateral ligament), Spencer Schwellenbach (fractured elbow), Chris Sale (fractured ribcage) and, more recently, Grant Holmes (elbow inflammation) landing on the injured list since the start of June.

Fedde reestablished himself in South Korea in 2023, parlaying a dominant season into a two-year, $15 million contract to return stateside with the Chicago White Sox. Fedde continued that success in 2024, posting a 3.30 ERA in 177⅓ innings with the White Sox and Cardinals.

This year, though, it has been a struggle for a crafty right-hander who doesn’t generate a lot of strikeouts. Twenty starts in, Fedde is 3-10 with a 5.22 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP.

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Dodgers go to 6-man rotation amid Ohtani return

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Dodgers go to 6-man rotation amid Ohtani return

BOSTON — Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani is expected to start on the mound Wednesday as he continues his buildup from elbow surgery that kept him from pitching all last season.

Manager Dave Roberts said Sunday before the Dodgers faced the Boston Red Sox in the finale of their three-game series that the plan is for Ohtani to work four innings at Cincinnati, with an off day to recover before hitting in a game.

With the Japanese superstar working his way back along with left-hander Blake Snell, who pitched 4⅔ innings on Saturday in his fourth rehab start for Triple-A Oklahoma City, the Dodgers will be using a six-man rotation.

They currently have Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Emmet Sheehan in the rotation.

“Shohei is going to go on Wednesday and then he’ll probably pitch the following Wednesday, so that probably lends itself to the six-man,” Roberts said.

In Ohtani’s last start, he allowed one run and four hits in three innings against Minnesota on July 22. He struck out three and walked one, throwing 46 pitches, 30 for strikes.

Roberts said this season is sort of a rehab year in the big leagues and doesn’t foresee the team extending Ohtani’s workload deep into games for a while.

“I think this whole year on the pitching side is sort of rehab, maintenance,” he said. “We’re not going to have the reins off where we’re going to say: ‘Hey you can go 110 pitches.’ I don’t see that happening for quite some time. I think that staying at four [innings] for a bit, then build up to five and we’ll see where we can go from there.”

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