And then there were two.
If you think of this current Yankees period as the Aaron Judge Era — circa 2017-present — then his Rookie of the Year season felt like the start of a dynamic young offensive core forming to bring championship(s).
Judge won the award in 2017. Gary Sanchez had nearly won it the year before via a two-month cameo. Greg Bird, after his own revelatory cameo in 2015, missed the 2016 season following shoulder surgery, then battled an ankle injury during most of the 2017 campaign, but ended it as the player (not Judge) that Astros manager A.J. Hinch decided he would not let beat him in the ALCS.
Miguel Andujar and Jackson (then Clint) Frazier made their debuts in 2017, and Gleyber Torres almost certainly would have as well had he not needed Tommy John surgery in June after tearing an elbow ligament on a head-first slide while playing at Triple-A.
