In case you hadn’t heard, Aaron Judge entered the 2025 MLB playoffs with a checkered history of October results compared with his stellar regular-season résumé.

For his career, Judge’s OPS is 250 points lower in the postseason than in the regular season (the average regular-season-to-playoff OPS dropoff for hitters in 2024 was 18 points), and his struggles on the biggest stage have become a talking point nearly every October.

After his .184/.344/.408 slash line during the Yankees’ 2024 postseason run, Judge is hitting objectively well in the playoffs this year — posting a 1.024 OPS and collecting an MLB-leading eight hits in his first five games. But he isn’t hitting for much power, with just one extra-base hit (a double) in 21 plate appearances, and his team enters Game 3 of the American League Division Series on the brink of elimination.

As the Yankees try to battle back against the Toronto Blue Jays, we dug deep into each of Judge’s first 18 at-bats (and three walks) to see what we can learn about his October so far.

How is Judge being pitched in the playoffs? Is it different from the regular season? Why isn’t he hitting for power? Is it bad luck? And where could his postseason go from here — if the Yankees can stick around long enough for him to find his home run stroke?

How left-handed pitchers are approaching Judge

Judge vs. lefties in playoff career: 42 PA, .400/.500/.714, 19% K, 17% BB, 3 HR
Judge vs. lefties this postseason: 8 PA, .500/.500/1.125, 13% K, 0% BB, 0 HR

Each pitcher has different strengths, but there are some clear trends that lefties are following when attacking Judge this month.

The game plan goes something like this: throw hard stuff (four-seam fastballs, sinkers, cutters) on his hands, largely down, then mix in softer stuff to keep him honest, locating those pitches down and on the corners — where he is least likely to do damage. If you miss, miss outside of the zone, not toward the middle. Don’t be afraid to nibble around the outside of the zone and live to fight another day.

That’s a solid plan against almost any hitter, but in this case, it means going hard inside against a 6-foot-7 slugger whose relative weaknesses will always include covering the plate against good stuff.

It’s telling that the two softer-throwing lefties Judge faced (Boston’s Connelly Early and Toronto’s Justin Bruihl) threw two fastballs out of their 10 total pitches and both missed off the plate inside, one missing so far inside that it hit Judge. Garrett Crochet, Aroldis Chapman, and Brendon Little were much more aggressive, likely because of their better fastballs.

How right-handed pitchers are approaching Judge

Judge vs. righties in playoff career: 241 PA, .192/.304/.409, 34% K, 13% BB, 13 HR
Judge vs. righties this postseason: 13 PA, .400/.538/.400, 23% K, 15% BB, 0 HR

Judge has faced eight different righties this postseason, and those pitchers vary vastly in their pitch mix and the quality of their stuff, but right-handed pitchers seem to be using a decision tree to craft their game plan against him.

If the righty’s top offspeed pitch is a breaking ball (slider, sweeper, curve) then he is throwing that as often as he can while locating it down and away — and mixing it with fastballs inside to keep Judge from leaning over the plate. Here’s a look at Judge vs. breaking balls only.

If the righty’s top secondary pitch is a splitter — such as Toronto’s Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage in the first two games of the ALDS — then he is mixing splitters and sliders away with some fastballs that are mostly targeted inside.

But no matter their style, one common goal for all of these pitchers is not to make a mistake over the plate!

How does Judge’s regular-season history factor into this plan?

Though Judge’s October struggles have become a narrative over his career, any team setting up its pitching strategy for a series will game plan for the two-time American League MVP with a career 1.028 OPS and 368 home runs rather than treating him like the player with a .223 average and .787 OPS in 63 career playoff games.

And that starts with keeping the ball away from where Judge can do the most damage.

During the 2025 regular season, Judge faced 176 pitches (essentially one pitch every four plate appearances) that qualified as in the middle-middle zone — or, in more general speak, right down the middle.

Against those pitches, Judge had a 1.630 OPS and 15 homers, both figures were second best in baseball.

This is where Judge ranked, among all qualified hitters in MLB this season, measured by xwOBA:

• Second best vs. middle-middle pitches

• Best vs. pitches in the heart of the zone (a larger part of the strike zone than middle-middle)

• Best per pitch vs. fastballs, second in overall value

• Best per pitch and overall vs. sinkers

• Best per pitch and overall vs. cutters

Imagine getting this scouting report as a pitcher before you face Judge in a playoff game. I wouldn’t throw him anything down the middle, either.

How Judge is handling pitches he should crush

Now for the twist: Judge has faced seven pitches in the playoffs that were in the middle-middle zone (one pitch every three plate appearances, so slightly more frequently than the regular season).

So far this postseason, Judge hasn’t put one of those pitches in play. He swung at five — fouled off four and whiffed at another — and took two middle-middle pitches for strikes.

This isn’t a trend I tried to identify in my research because the small sample means one home run on a center-cut ball would poke a hole in it, but in watching all of his playoff at-bats, I made too many of this sort of note: “target was [zone direction] corner, missed target to the middle of the zone, [nothing bad happened to the pitcher].”

So, yes, it’s a small sample, but October baseball is won and lost on small samples. Judge is getting pitched roughly how he was in the regular season (actually even a bit more hitter-friendly), but he hasn’t replicated his regular-season damage, especially when it comes to punishing mistakes thrown down the middle. Judge has performed basically the same (chase rate, xwOBA, etc.) as the regular season against noncenter-cut pitches, so not taking advantage of these mistakes is accounting for his dip in power in the playoffs this year.

Over 162 games, anyone putting up an OPS over 1.000 is having a very productive season — even if it’s all coming from singles and a few doubles — but the heat has been turned up with the Yankees facing elimination, and the offense needs to deliver, with Judge at the heart of it. This team needs Judge to punish mistakes and create some souvenirs or he is at risk of having another October disappointment added to his résumé.

UK steel manufacturers are to be hit by another round of tariffs, even higher and more impactful than those levied by the US, representing “an existential threat” to the industry.

The European Union (EU) is hiking the tax on steel it imports, with the tariff to be 50%, double the 25% currently levied by the Trump administration in the US and the EU’s current rate.

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This decision is an “existential threat”, according to the assistant general secretary of the Community union, Alasdair McDiarmid.

“Europe is by far the largest destination for UK steel exports, and losing access to this market would have a catastrophic impact on British jobs,” he said.

UK Steel, the steel industry body, described it as “perhaps the biggest crisis the UK steel industry has ever faced” and called on the government to “secure UK country quotas”.

Establishing a UK country quota could mean some steel is traded with lower or no tariffs at all.

If this is not arranged, the industry would “potentially face disaster”, said Gareth Stace, the director general at UK Steel.

Why is the EU doing it?

The EU is erecting the trade barrier to avoid an influx of steel imports flooding its market in the wake of the US’s tariffs hike and to avoid making the EU less competitive for domestic producers.

EU commissioner for prosperity and industrial strategy, Stephane Sejourne, said the EU was also reducing the amount of steel being imported from abroad to “save our European steel plants and jobs”.

Similar measures have been called for by UK Steel.

“The UK government must now recognise the urgent need to put in place its own measures to defend against a flood of imports,” Mr Stace said.

“The probability of the EU’s measures redirecting millions of tonnes of steel towards the UK could be terminal for many of our remaining steel companies.”

Detail of when the policy will take effect has yet to be announced.

Responding to the news, industry minister Chris McDonald said,

“We will always defend our critical steel industry, which is why we are pushing the European Commission for urgent clarification of the impact of this move on the UK.”

“It’s vital we protect trade flows between the UK and EU and we will work with our closest allies to address global challenges rather than adding to our industries’ woes.”

When asked about the topic, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “Our position in relation to our steel industry is one of strong support.”

He added: “In relation to the question of tariffs or other measures, as you’d expect, we are in discussions with the EU about this, as we’re in discussions with the US about it. So I’ll be able to tell you more in due course.”

Up to 14.2 million people could each receive an average of £700 in compensation due to car loan mis-selling, the financial services regulator has said.

Nearly half (44%) of all car loan agreements made since April 2007 up to November 2024 could be eligible for payouts, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said.

Those eligible for the compensation will have had a loan where the broker received commission from a lender.

Lenders broke the law by not sharing this fact with consumers, the FCA said, and customers lost out on better deals and sometimes paid more.

A scheme is seen by the FCA as the best outcome for consumers and lenders, as it avoids the courts and the Financial Ombudsman Service, therefore minimising delay, uncertainty and administration costs.

Anyone who may have been impacted has been advised to complain to the institution that lent them the money.

The scheme will be funded by the dozens of lenders involved in the loans, and cost about £8.2bn, on the lower end of expectations, which had been expected to reach as much as £18bn.

The figure was reached by estimating 85% of eligible applicants will take part in the scheme.

Anyone who believes they have been impacted should contact their lender. Compensation will begin to be paid in 2026, with an exact timeline yet to be worked out.