Aaron Judge stands something like 31 feet tall, a giant in any room, but when he made it to his first All-Star Game in 2017, the Yankees’ outfielder recalls feeling more than a hint of impostor syndrome.
Today, he’s AARON JUDGE, a captain in all caps. He’s the official leader of the New York Yankees, a two-time MVP who set the Junior Circuit’s single-season home run record in 2022. He has played in the World Series and will captain Team USA at next year’s World Baseball Classic. A few days before the 2025 All-Star Game, he became the fastest player in history to reach 350 homers, besting Mark McGwire’s record by nearly 200 games.
But in 2017 in Miami, he was still something of a neophyte, just 111 games into his career. He looked awesome in winning the Home Run Derby, but plenty of young studs burn hot and flame out fast. In an AL clubhouse alongside the likes of Mike Trout, Robinson Canó and Nelson Cruz, Judge wasn’t sure how he fit in. “You’re a little nervous, you kind of think you don’t belong,” Judge said during this year’s Midsummer Classic in Atlanta, reflecting on his transition from hotshot rookie to All-Star veteran. “But at the end of the day, everybody in that room is an All-Star, and they deserve to be in there. So, that’s what I try to tell them. I try to go around and talk to those guys and just say, ‘Hey, man, you’re an All-Star just like everybody else in this room.’”
There were plenty of young first-timers who might have enjoyed some attention from the Yankees’ right fielder, a seven-time All-Star who builds his case for Cooperstown every time he steps into a batter’s box. Certainly Cal Raleigh -- the Derby champ and the big leagues’ home run leader at the break -- but perhaps also AL East rivals Jonathan Aranda, Junior Caminero and Ryan O’Hearn, or the Athletics’ Jacob Wilson, the youngest player on the American League roster.
No one knows the impact that Judge can have on a team better than the guys in pinstripes, and in Atlanta, the slugger had plenty of company. Sure, Judge was honored as an All-Star alongside teammates Jazz Chisholm Jr., Max Fried and Carlos Rodón. All three had been selected before, although never as Yankees.
But Judge’s welcoming message probably felt particularly fitting to a group of Yankees behind the scenes, the coaching and support staff that earned the trip to Atlanta on account of the Yankees winning the 2024 American League pennant. Manager Aaron Boone, per tradition, brought his entire crew along for the ride, with recognizable faces such as pitching coach Matt Blake and third-base coach Luis Rojas working alongside others that fans rarely see on TV. Rather than a private jet to shuttle the All-Stars into town for the festivities, the defending AL champs had to charter a Delta 757 for all the players, coaches, staff members and their families flying down from New York.
For a big league team to succeed -- for it to emerge from the regular season ready to battle it out in October, to chase a pennant and then the ultimate prize, a World Series championship -- it takes a lot more than the players, even when those players are some of the best in the world. It takes trainers, clubhouse managers, video coordinators, infield coaches, bullpen catchers and more. Nearly everyone involved in the game knows that, and those who didn’t got a peek at it in the final moments of the 2025 All-Star Game, when the last three people on the field in the first-ever All-Star Game swing-off were Aranda -- a Tampa Bay Rays All-Star -- along with Yankees first-base coach Travis Chapman and bullpen catcher Rainiero Coa.
“To be part of the All-Star Game? It was crazy,” Coa said immediately after the National League prevailed in the swing-off tiebreaker, 4-3. “How about that?”
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Joe Torre isn’t certain, but he believes that he might have helped start the tradition. It was 1997, and Torre’s Yankees were the defending World Series champs, meaning that the guy who had represented the NL in nine All-Star Games during an 18-year playing career would be managing in the Midsummer Classic for the first time. As he recalls, he reached out to the league office and said that he wanted to bring his whole staff, and sure enough, the Yankees ended up running the show behind the scenes during the celebration in Cleveland. “I didn’t get any pushback,” the Hall of Fame manager said during All-Star Week in Atlanta, where he served as an honorary coach on Boone’s staff, alongside Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt and the entire Yankees staff.
Torre has Atlanta ties, and he managed both the Yankees and Dodgers, the two teams defending their crowns this year. The 2025 All-Star Game came just a few days before Torre’s 85th birthday, and Boone was excited to offer a beloved figure, who represented the Yankees as manager at six Midsummer Classics, a chance to get in uniform, just like Torre had in recent years at Yankees Spring Training. Having spent years working in the Commissioner’s Office, and enough of a veteran to know that even the best ideas can present unexpected complications, Torre started thinking about all the red tape once Boone reached out with the novel idea.
“I said, ‘Let me check with the powers that be,’” Torre told Boone, “because I know that you have to clear some hurdles to get the OK. He says, ‘I’ve already done that.’ So, what do you say other than ‘Yes’ after that?”
It was hard to imagine a more perfect manifestation of what the All-Star Game is truly about than seeing the generational link among the coaches involved. All-Star Games are a holistic celebration, recognizing the game as it is at one very specific moment, and also the entire history of the sport. In Atlanta, there were globally recognized figures on the field, and also some players barely known outside of their own cities. There was also a shatteringly beautiful (and technologically incredible) tribute to Hank Aaron, who made American history on a baseball field in the same city 51 years earlier.
Yankees bullpen coach Mike Harkey was on the AL coaching staff for the 2010 All-Star Game in Anaheim when Joe Girardi’s Yankees were the defending world champs. Along with assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler, who attended with the Mets’ coaches in 2016, he was the only Yankee who had worked a previous All-Star Game in an official coaching capacity. (Boone was selected as a player in 2003, and bench coach Brad Ausmus made it in 1999.) For Harkey, spending time around Torre was a remarkable joy, as he got to chat with a fellow traveler who has experienced the greatest heights the sport can offer. But he was just as touched by seeing the other end of the spectrum, as he considered those for whom it was a totally new experience.
“For me, the biggest thrill of all is to watch how exciting it is for them to do something that’s once in a lifetime,” Harkey said, speaking specifically about bullpen catchers Coa and Peter Serruto, who were called into service to catch seven of the eight batters during the Home Run Derby, including Chisholm. “Hopefully, it’s not. But if you think about it in the grand scheme of things, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that they get to spend time with these great players and their families and then participate in the Home Run Derby. These are guys that I spend every day with all season, watching how hard they work every single day. And to see them get rewarded for this is pretty cool.”
The Yankees’ traveling party arrived in Atlanta on Sunday evening, and by Monday, Coa and Serruto were preparing the Truist Park bullpen to host the best arms in the sport. They made sure the area behind the left-field wall was stocked with everything the pitchers would need, and then they offered to catch anyone who needed to get some throws in. For two guys used to receiving Fried and Rodón, to say nothing of the other elite arms on the Yankees’ staff, it was still a trip to be working with the likes of Jacob deGrom, Garrett Crochet and some of the other extraordinary pitchers in Atlanta.
Serruto caught Tarik Skubal in the bullpen before the Tigers’ ace started the game for the American League. While bullpen catchers engage in plenty of back-and-forth with pitchers over the course of a season, the 25-year-old Serruto, who was a Yankees Minor Leaguer before joining the staff this season, wasn’t entirely sure what to expect in such a high-profile environment.
“I’m just going to follow Tarik’s lead, see if he asks for input,” Serruto said before the game. “He already told me yesterday, ‘Hey, if you see me cut my changeup, let me know.’ So, he’s asking for feedback. But in an atmosphere like this, where winning isn’t everything like in a regular-season game, you’re more there to cater to the pitchers and have fun with it all. But at the end of the day, they’re animals. They’re competing. They hold themselves to such a high standard. That’s why they’re here.”
And the All-Stars definitely understood how special it was for all involved. “I think it’s cool for them,” Skubal said of the non-playing personnel. “It’s also cool for us, too. You get different interactions with different people around the league. They’ve probably caught a lot of really good arms coming up. So, I think it’s cool for everyone involved.”
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There’s not a whole lot of coaching that goes on in an All-Star Game, with the best players in the world descending on a town for a two-day stretch of parties, obligations and some baseball thrown in, as well. As the infield coach, Chapman met with the AL players to go over some basic thoughts before the game, but he generally told the shortstops to take control on the field. Yankees coaches threw batting practice and hit fungoes to players and otherwise mostly made small talk. “Just go out, have fun, chart pitches, make sure they get what they need in order to go compete” is how assistant pitching coach Preston Claiborne described his role for the event. “Hopefully, we come out with a victory.” Or, as Harkey said of his responsibilities, “Basically, absolutely nothing. The old saying, Just get nine good players, and let them go play. Well, we’ve got 30 of them. Just let them go and play. The only thing we’re doing is telling them when they’re playing. Other than that, they go out there and do their thing.”
“You don’t want to interrupt a lot of what they do with their own coaches,” said Rojas, the third-base coach. “But you do ask, ‘What do you need? We’re here for you.’ In order to prepare for the game, we had those conversations with the guys. I work with the outfielders, so, ‘What do you need? Do you want to see balls off the bat? Do you want grounders?’”
And that’s perfectly fine for the players. In some cases, the less coaching there is, the better. For one thing, while everyone enjoys the experience of being together in an All-Star clubhouse and putting aside the rivalries and aggression for a few days, these are still competitors. There’s only so much of your special sauce that you want to share. And then there’s the fact that no coach in his right mind would encourage a starting pitcher to go out there and exceed max effort on every pitch for one inning of work. Field coordinator and catching coach Tanner Swanson helped put together the daily schedule, and Blake and Claiborne worked off reports sent in from the All-Stars’ teams, figuring out who was available for how many pitches and helping Boone develop a plan for who would pitch and when. Blake also tried to suss out anything he needed to know about pitchers’ routines and preferences, making sure that he wouldn’t inadvertently say or do something wrong. Then they got out of the way and let the elite arms on their roster have a blast.
“A lot of it is, ‘You’re really fun to watch. Go get ’em,’” said Rodón, a veteran of two prior All-Star Games. “It’s not a normal day, especially on the game day. Guys are warming up, but it’s not like preparation for a normal regular-season game. It’s a little more relaxed. Obviously, you want to go out there and win, but there’s not much coaching going on. Just, ‘I respect your game. You’re fun to watch from the other side.’”
All of which leaves plenty of time for the coaching staff to enjoy themselves, as well. They don’t often travel with family on road trips, but Blake was pushing his young baby around in a stroller for much of the week, while Swanson had his four children in tow. When the family members were all away from the clubhouse (and hopefully finding some sort of air-conditioned respite from the tropical Southern climate), the coaching staff could act as flies on the wall, trying to pick up any ideas by watching the cream of the crop. “There’s a lot to learn from just being around high-level pitchers,” Blake said. On the hitting side, James Rowson knew that he and his assistant coaches, Roessler and Casey Dykes, could gain so much just by keeping their eyes open. “Every experience you have in this game makes you better,” Rowson said. “Every time you can do something different, be around something different, experience something different, good or bad, it’s always going to make you better.
“But it’s funny, you still realize how hard the game is. These are the best hitters in the game, and this game is hard, even for these guys.”
There were, however, a few things that coaches actually do need to do during All-Star Week. As manager, Boone had to write out the lineup card and go to the mound to make mid-inning pitching changes. And, of course, he had to address the august collection of stars before the game. For both tasks, he chose to get some help from his distinguished special guest.
In the bottom of the eighth, at Boone’s urging, Torre popped out of the dugout to take the ball from White Sox pitcher Shane Smith, an All-Star Game walk he made many times during his managerial career. And in the pregame clubhouse, after Boone spoke to the team, Torre said a few words, as well.
“You can hear a pin drop when someone like that speaks, man,” Judge said. “He’s one of the legends of this game. Having him around, it takes me back to the early 2000s, that’s for sure.”
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Freddie Freeman recalled a strange thought that popped into his head almost immediately upon clinching the National League pennant in 2021. Now a star for the Dodgers, at the time Freeman was a leader on the Braves team that would go on to win the World Series after years of falling short. As the corks started popping, he sought out his manager and said, “You get to be at the All-Star Game next year!”
“That’s the cool thing,” Freeman said from Atlanta. “Because you never know if you’re going to make an All-Star Game, be an All-Star or never make one. So, when you can make it and be here and experience these couple of days, it’s awesome.”
It’s not just the pennant-winning coaches who get to revel in all the festivities. The Yankees sent batboys Alex Rodriguez and Vincent Talierico; Brett Weber, who works on advance scouting, and strength and conditioning coach Larry Adegoke were there as well. Head athletic trainer Tim Lentych was on call, as was director of clubhouse operations Lou Cucuzza Jr., who has worked the AL clubhouse at nearly every All-Star Game since 2008. In a world that devotes so much attention to the players on the field and rewards them handsomely for their awesome efforts, the All-Stars would be the first to tell you that nothing would work without the guys outside the camera frame.
“Our uniforms are pristine every game,” said Braves pitcher Chris Sale. “Our cleats look brand new, fresh out of the box, every time. We travel to cities; do you know how many times I forgot a belt? Or I forgot a hat? Or this, that, or the other? Those are the guys that put this all together. Our clubhouse guys, our training staff, those are the glue guys that make this all happen.
“If you took away every clubbie in baseball, this operation doesn’t work. It really doesn’t. I’m just being honest. I’m wearing a dirty jersey. I’m not taking this thing home and cleaning it every night. So, for them to be able to experience this and be a part of it is really fun for us, and I appreciate them being here.”
Even amid the sensory overload in the AL clubhouse before the game, Roessler had a brief moment in which he struggled to recognize the weight of where he was, why he was there and what it all meant. “You probably mean to talk to J-Ro,” the 65-year-old baseball lifer said, an assistant hitting coach instinctively trying to deflect a question about working with hitters to Rowson. He is used to hanging in the background and letting his hitters talk with their bats. When there are questions to be answered, those go to Boone or Rowson. Except … no. In Atlanta, he was an All-Star coach, just like the rest of his teammates. It’s fine to talk about it.
It’s a crucial thing to understand about baseball: There’s no such thing as a former All-Star. Once you’re selected, you’re an All-Star for life. It’s one of the first data points on a Baseball Reference or Wikipedia page. Whether you go once or a dozen times, you’re always an All-Star.
If someone like Judge can struggle with impostor syndrome, anyone can, whether a first-time All-Star or a bullpen catcher. But you can’t control when the spotlight might find you. Coa prepared as much as he could for the experience of working with elite pitchers and catching in the Home Run Derby. He brought along his wife, Claudia, and 5-year-old son, Owen, and they all had the time of their lives. And just when he thought it was over — when NL manager Dave Roberts sent out Robert Suarez and then Edwin Díaz to close it out, and the AL bullpen was empty — suddenly, Coa was part of the thrilling, game-deciding action. The final image of a Yankee at the 2025 All-Star Game wasn’t Judge, who came out of the game in the fifth inning after grounding out in his two plate appearances. It wasn’t Rodón, who pitched superbly in the second inning. It wasn’t the flashy camera magnet, Chisholm, who entertained millions in the Home Run Derby and then played the last five innings of the Midsummer Classic at second base. Nor was it Boone or Torre.
It was the first-base coach and the bullpen catcher, Travis Chapman and Rainiero Coa.
“Everyone was looking at the pressure on the hitters. I was thinking about the pressure on Chappie right there,” Rowson said afterward. “Oh, my goodness!”
Like the rest of the Yankees’ staff, Chapman and Coa were there because of what the 2024 Yankees had accomplished. Maybe it was, like Harkey said, a once-in-a-lifetime experience; everyone on the Yankees hopes that it won’t be. Roberts led his Dodgers staff to the All-Star Game for the fourth time, the second as defending world champions. Boone, certainly, would like to make it back with a World Series ring to his name. And while that will mean incredible things for Yankees fans and Yankees players, spare a thought for the beneficiaries used to toiling behind the scenes, even if they occasionally and unexpectedly end up the center of attention — All-Stars just like everybody else in the room.
“It takes a lot of hard work to get to the position we did last year,” Judge said. “I think they’re guys that never get any recognition or praise and stuff like that. Them finally getting a little bit of praise, getting to show off a little bit out there and have fun with their family, it’s going to be something they’ll never forget.”
Jon Schwartz is the deputy editor for Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the August 2025 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.