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MLB All-Star Game 2025: All-Star festivities bring another reminder that Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani exist in a tier all their own

ATLANTA — For Aaron Judge, his first All-Star Game still feels like yesterday.

It was 2017 when the Yankees’ slugger touched down in Miami for the Midsummer Classic as baseball’s Next Big Thing. The first half of that season had been a thrill ride for the 25-year-old rookie, who’d burst on the scene with 30 homers before the break. Judge then dominated the

Home Run Derby at Marlins Park, announcing himself to the American public as a true sporting superstar.

But for Judge, the most vivid moment from that first All-Star experience came right before his first at-bat in the top of the first inning. As the future Yankees captain, still gap-toothed and baby-faced, readied himself to face reigning NL Cy Young Max Scherzer, he dug his size-17 Under Armour spikes into the batter’s box. Then, with a big grin on his face, Judge turned to his right and acknowledged the catcher.

“Hey, Buster.”

Buster Posey nodded back. Judge, who grew up a Giants fan, beamed with joy.

“I watched him for years with the Giants, and then I'm digging into my first-ever All-Star Game, and he's the catcher behind the plate,” Judge recalled to Yahoo Sports during All-Star media availability on Monday. “So I thought that was just such a surreal moment. It's just something I never would have thought because, you know, you rewind a couple years, [and] I'm sitting at home watching him on TV in the World Series.”

Fast-forward eight seasons, and Judge is, once again, at the All-Star Game. It is the seventh of what will be a Hall of Fame career. In the years since his first appearance, New York’s dinger-clubbing colossus has elevated himself to the very top of the sport. He has won two AL MVP awards and, despite a formidable challenge from Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, remains the favorite to claim another this season.

Put simply: Nobody in the sport of baseball is bigger than Judge.

Well, except for Shohei Ohtani.

As Judge towers over the American League, a worthy National League counterpart looms large opposite him in Ohtani, a global sensation whose already monumental profile has spiked exponentially since he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers. Fresh off parallel MVP seasons and a memorable face-off in the World Series, Ohtani and Judge have definitively separated themselves in a tier of their own.

This year, they are once again chasing individual greatness to a mind-blowing level, with Judge pushing the upper boundaries of overall offensive production and Ohtani resuming his singular two-way exploits after a lengthy rehab process. The duo received early and automatic entry as the top starters in Tuesday's All-Star Game after garnering roughly four million votes apiece from fans, further indication that they have ascended into a stratosphere of superstardom that no other players occupy.

At this point, it feels as though we’ve been living in the Judge/Ohtani Era for a while now. But it hasn’t always been this way.

While Judge has shared the major-league stage with Ohtani for nearly all of his MLB career, only more recently have the two so obviously existed as parallel powers atop the sport. As Judge’s status soared — and occasionally suffered — while playing in the highest-stakes environment the game has to offer in the Bronx, Ohtani’s achievements were stuck as flashy headlines on Angels teams that were rarely relevant. After their respective historic rookie campaigns in 2017 and 2018, injuries derailed both players in 2019 and 2020 while a broader array of other stars seized the focus of the national audience.

Since the pandemic-shortened season, however, there has been no doubt: These are the guys. The 2021 season was all about Ohtani, as we got our first full-fledged look at his unprecedented two-way talents over the course of a full season. Judge responded in 2022 with an AL-record 62 homers, prompting a fierce and fascinating MVP debate that Judge ultimately won. Ohtani reclaimed the throne in 2023 with another outrageous campaign of standout hitting and dominant pitching, albeit one that ended with an injury that required surgery and put his future as a two-way player somewhat in doubt.

For those three years, Ohtani and Judge’s burgeoning rivalry existed solely in the context of American League MVP ballots and fan-fueled arguments about who was better. But because the Angels continued to languish as a team, there were minimal opportunities for the two to face off in settings that mattered beyond their individual greatness.

That all changed last year after Ohtani joined the Dodgers, a collective powerhouse capable of putting him on the postseason stage for the first time. His new threads also cleared the way for both to pursue MVP honors side by side, without the other’s greatness getting in the way. Unsurprisingly, both capitalized on the opportunity: Judge slugged another 58 homers while Ohtani proved he didn’t even need to pitch to be MVP-worthy, delivering the first 50/50 season in MLB history.

More importantly, as the Yankees and Dodgers thrived in the regular season, visions of a World Series showdown between the two greats began to crystallize. And sure enough, the ultimate baseballing confrontation came to be. Ohtani’s Dodgers took the title in five games as Judge’s Yankees came up short in October once again.

Over the past few years, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge have ascended into a stratosphere of superstardom that no other MLB players occupy. (Jonathan Castro/Yahoo Sports)

For the past four seasons, Judge and Ohtani have repeatedly one-upped each other — and themselves — as they climbed higher and higher within the pantheon of the game’s greats. With each additional accolade, the stakes are heightened, the expectations raised. This week’s All-Star festivities in Atlanta have delivered another platform for Judge and Ohtani to stand out. But for how much these two have already done for the game, it’s remarkable how much more they still have to offer — and how much more we still have to look forward to. Judge’s bat somehow keeps getting better. Ohtani is still in the earliest stages of reestablishing himself as a two-way force.

“Incredible pitcher, incredible player, excited to see what they do with him and continue to build him up,” Judge said of Ohtani on Monday. “The fans love watching him. He's great for this game. I'm excited to see that he's fully back and now being able to do both. Because when we first came in the league, and he was able to do that, it was kind of unheard of, and I think we kind of take it for granted what he's able to do on a baseball field.”

Judge is right — but not just about Ohtani. Both players have made this a time in baseball history that should be truly cherished. A World Series rematch could be in store, this year or down the line. And in March, Judge will suit up for Team USA for the first time in the World Baseball Classic, potentially setting the stage for a showdown against Ohtani and Team Japan in an international clash for the ages.

It’s all very easy to get excited about, especially given Ohtani’s recent return to the mound. But regardless of where these two go from here and how often they face off in the future, let’s not take the Judge/Ohtani era lightly. It’s a special stretch that baseball fans will look back on fondly as a rare circumstance of two all-time greats peaking at the same time — for the sport’s two marquee franchises, no less. Worthy challengers such as Raleigh or Bobby Witt Jr. or Francisco Lindor or Pete Crow-Armstrong might emerge as valid MVP competition in any given season, but until proven otherwise, Judge and Ohtani will remain the gold standards of our game, the fundamental figures of Major League Baseball around the world.

Judge turned 33 in April, Ohtani 31 earlier this month. They are both under contract with their respective teams for the foreseeable future (Judge through 2031, Ohtani through ‘33). Considering how well they are playing, there is no end to this era of two-pronged greatness in sight.

But even so, they will not be at the peak of their powers forever. So for as long as we can, let’s appreciate what the game has gifted us with these two singular talents — and celebrate their greatness at every turn.

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