What used to be one of baseball’s most magical numbers — 61 home runs — now sits buried, eight lines deep, in the MLB record book.

And now, it’s the slow wait for the start of what Aaron Judge over the years has called “the real season.” For the Yankees, that begins Saturday at the Stadium against the winner of this week’s best-of-three wild-card series between the Orioles and Royals in Baltimore.

Major League Baseball’s basestealing renaissance continued in 2024, with players swiping bags at a level not seen in more than a century. MLB players stole 3,617 bases this past season, the most in 109 years and the third most in any season since 1900,

Aaron Judge was MLB's home run king once again in 2024, but he was still a long way from the MLB single-season record.