New York Yankees star Aaron Judge has repeated as the American League MVP. The Yankees captain edged out Cal Raleigh and comfortably finished ahead of third-place José Ramírez to claim his third MVP award in four seasons. He is now the thirteenth player in league history to win the honor three times.
This year’s race was as close as possible. Judge and Raleigh appeared first or second on all 30 ballots. Judge received 17 first-place votes, while Raleigh earned 13. Had just two voters flipped, the league would have seen its first co-MVPs since Keith Hernandez and Willie Stargell split the NL award in 1979.
Both players delivered remarkable seasons. Judge was once again the best offensive player in baseball, hitting .311/.457/.688 and leading the majors in all three categories. He also paced the AL with 124 walks and 137 runs scored. While he finished second to Raleigh with 53 home runs and 114 RBI, Judge dominated the rate statistics. He walked more, struck out less, and produced significantly better results on balls in play, finishing nearly .100 points higher in OBP and more than .080 points higher in average. He won the AL batting title by .020 points over Bo Bichette and Jacob Wilson.
Before the broadcast MLB Network interviewed both of the finalists and when Judge was asked what the thing is he takes pride in most, he responded by saying it is his batting average. The pride in that category for a slugger is what separated him from the field.
With the historic win Aaron Judge now joins Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio as the only Yankees ever to win 3 MVP awards and is the first Yankee to win the award in back-to-back seasons since Roger Maris accomplished that feat in 1960 and 1961.