Here Comes The Judge ... Again

Willie, Mickey, the Duke, Joltin Joe, the Kid, and many more patrolled center field in baseball's long and storied history but none put up the eye popping numbers that Aaron Judge did last season. 2022 was a historic season, and many have argued that Judge's final numbers last year were the greatest by a center fielder in the history of baseball.

Judge garnered 28 of the 30 first place votes for MVP which led sports books across the country to open him up at just about 5 to 1 to win the award again this season. The two way superstar Ohtani, and his teammate Mike Trout were in front of him to begin the year. Judge had his skeptics on a repeat season, and his MVP odds rose pretty quickly as the season began. Ohtani was lights out in his first month as a starter and the accolades for his performances skyrocketed him to even money for the award. Judge fell all the way back to last week, when you could get odds on a Judge repeat at more than 10 to 1 in some spots.

The baseball futures market moves slowly. One thing we have learned is it takes bettors weeks to adjust their ratings of a player and this might be the best time to grab Judge's numbers at this value. Aaron Judge has already had a 10 day IL stint, which made many believe he couldn't possibly get himself back into the race. But, he suddenly has. Judge has gone on a home run tear and he isn't that far off his historic pace from last season. In 2022 he hit 6 home runs in April and 12 in May. That means he is a handful of HR's away from being right on pace, with more than a week to go in this month, and take into account his IL stint.

The other good news for Judge backers is that Ohtani has looked absolutely terrible on the bump. Shohei Ohtani has now allowed 17 runs in his last 25 innings. He’s also allowed 8 home runs, and walked 7 in his last 4 starts.Bettors have yet to adjust to how awful he has looked recently. Yes, it might be tough to catch Shohei, but Judge is back to looking like his 2022 self and there will never be a higher value on his MVP odds.