AL home run record holder Aaron Judge has been named the league’s Most Valuable Player, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced. Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani finished second, followed by Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez.
Judge has been the favorite to claim the award since a few weeks into the year. The herculean slugger popped six home runs in the season’s first month and only picked up the pace from there. He topped double-digits in longballs in each of the next three months before collecting 20 more from August onwards. His homer pace hit a bit of a lull once he reached 60 and pulled within one of Roger Maris with a bit more than two weeks to play, but Judge eventually claimed the record with blasts off Tim Mayza and Jesús Tinoco.
It was an obviously historic season from a power perspective, but the three-time Silver Slugger winner’s achievements went beyond the longball. He flirted with a Triple Crown late in the season and ultimately finished second among AL qualifiers with a .311 batting average. His .425 on-base percentage paced the circuit, and his .686 slugging mark was well better than Alvarez’s second-place .613 figure. He also played a significant amount of innings in center field, adequately moving to the outfield’s most demanding position after a career spent mostly in right field.
Judge helped the Yankees to 99 wins and an American League East crown. He earned his fourth career All-Star selection, and finished in the top five in MVP balloting for the third time. It’s his first time winning the award, and it couldn’t have come at a better time personally. Judge is a first-time free agent, and his ultimate destination will be one of the storylines of the winter.
Ohtani comes in second place the year after winning his first MVP. An incomparable player, Ohtani hit 34 homers and posted a .273/.356/.519 line as a designated hitter. The right-hander also tossed a career-high 166 innings, posting a 2.33 ERA with an AL-leading 33.2% strikeout rate in 28 starts. On his pitching accomplishments alone, he finished fourth in Cy Young balloting. That’s nothing short of remarkable for a player who also finished fifth in slugging and fourth in longballs in the American League. If not for an historic offensive season from Judge, Ohtani would likely have flown to a second straight MVP.
Judge received 28 of 30 first-place votes, with Ohtani collecting the other two. They were 1-2 in some order on every ballot, while Alvarez picked up 22 third-place nods. The Houston star hit .306/.406/.613, trailing only Judge among AL players in on-base and slugging. He finished third in homers and earned his first All-Star selection and MVP finalist appearance.
Guardians third baseman José Ramírez secured six third-place votes and finished fourth overall. Astros second baseman José Altuve came in fifth, edging out Cleveland second baseman Andrés Giménez (the only player besides Alvarez and Ramírez to secure any third-place votes). Julio Rodríguez, Mike Trout, Xander Bogaerts and Cy Young winner Justin Verlander rounded out the top ten.
Full voting breakdown available here.
Finally. He most definitely deserved it. Now, here comes the Judge with his MVP!
Easy call. All Rise!
Mindless robot. Ohtani is the real MVP. Judge is good for beating up on garbage pitching.
Yeah , all those difficult Ohtani at-bats against Oakland and Texas….
When a player breaks the all time home run record, and has one of the best offensive seasons of all time… He is the MVP.
If there was a most remarkable player award, Ohtani should win that hands down.
As it should be. Long time coming. Too long. Well earned, well deserved.
Hopefully next Aaron Judge news will be “Aaron Judge and Yankees Reach Agreement on 8 year $340M Contract” or something along those lines.
I agree with you. You really can’t see him any other jersey than pinstripes. It’ll be too weird. Somebody is going to back up the money truck
Every time I do the math, I figure a couple of things:
1) He should stay a Yankee for the sake of his own legacy
2) They should sign him to an 8 year deal and they should see it as two or three different deals combined into one deal:
A record breaking deal valued for 3 years, followed by another 3 year deal at a still elite but much more palatable value and a 2 year retirement tour style deal that takes the place of those kinds of 1 or 2 year deals a lot of guys get after their career contract is over but they aren’t done playing yet, or want to keep playing long enough to reach some personal stat records but it’s no longer really about the money.
Contract just moved up from 300MM to 325MM
Pretty sure it was $325mm+ already
He has the Yankees bent over a barrel. He might get a lot more then that.
Damn, with how good Judge was this season I thought Altuve was gonna win it.
I do think Altuve’s moment in the sun is over, even with the Astors winning the WS this year, but yes, it felt like there was a period where it felt like simply by being on the active roster Altuve was going to be a bunch of baseball writers’ number one choice for MVP.
Altuve is only interested in World Series wins.
Then why did he lie to keep his MVP?
What did Altuve lie about?
28 votes for Judge and 2 for Shohei. Nicely done 99.
I love what Shohei did but it should have been 30-0 based on the season judge had! 8 yrs – $355MM
I would have voted for judge, but I can not blame anyone for voting for the guy who finished 4th in Cy Young and hit 34 HRs.
I loved Roger Maris, half the size of Judge, in NY eyes, Mantle should have won in 1961, Roger Maris laid his life down for BB. I will always respect Roger Maris…
And, Maris did it while receiving death threats and getting booed. That’s just incredible that he was able to pull through. What he often doesn’t get enough credit for either is his RF defense.
That’s not to take away from what Judge did. It’s simply to add to what Maris did. Both had amazing seasons and Judge’s was historic first so many different reasons.
History in the books!
Well deserved! Judge should have also won it in 2017. Let’s get the man signed and build this team to finally knock out the cheating Astros.
A season for the ages. Well deserved. Happy to be a witness to history
He’s lucky MVP voting doesn’t factor in postseason performance.
Ohtani too. He didn’t even play! Ha
Nice, now come win one with the Giants. Ha
I’m shocked.
No brainer. He had a historic season. Congratulations to Aaron Judge
It was Judge’s pitching that got him the award. Oh, wait, he plays in NY and not Toronto. Ohtani is the MVP
Yea, should have given the award again to a player who screws up the pitching rotation because he can’t pitch on regular rest, and hogs all the DH ABs away from aging All-stars like Trout/Rendon. Its a minor miracle the Angels won 70 games catering to Ohtani
Wow, that’s a take one doesn’t hear every day. Hmmm.
bucsfan, Trout is just coming into his prime. Not aging yet.
the way i see it judge deserves it because without judge does nyy even win the division or make it to the alcs personally i don’t think so. now i do think ohtani is a special player and plays very well on both sides but you take oh of this year’s halo’s they still finish about the same
Bucsfan – I’m with you. I’ve been saying it for a while myself. The six-man rotation is hurting the Angels. They need to switch back to a five-man rotation—more Ohtani starts and no starts from a 6th pitcher will only result in more wins. Also, Ohtani can get the day off after each start to charge up while Trout (or Rendon) can DH on those days instead of getting a full day off and losing their bat in the lineup.
Despite Ohtani being a dual threat, Judge still produced a higher WAR. Also, sure being a good hitter and a good pitcher is great but Judge played a plus centerfield where Ohtani pretty much only took the field when he pitched, if you’re going to knock Judge for not pitching, Ohtani gets knocked for not fielding.
Add up all Judge’s PA and every play to CF.
Then add up all Ohtani’s PA and every batter he faced while pitching.
Who was involved in more plays? So that CF excuse don’t play homie.
Judge became the true single season home run champ passing Roger Maris and that is why he got the MVP.
NOT because he plays CF and Ohtani doesn’t.
Well, no. Judge didn’t beat Ruth, for example.
In no way does mean that the award going to Judge is not well deserved. He had a monster, magical season that was a privilege to be witness to.
Ohtani also had a historic year. Not even Ruth matched what Ohtani did this season.
Well deserved
4 bills now.
I hope this is hyperbole. Judge is an unbelievable player, but will turn 31 at the start of next season. It’s really a no win situation for anyone that signs him because the agents, the media, and the fans throw out these ridiculous numbers and the players start to believe them. A realistic contract would be a 5 year $40M a year to put him around $200M. The player gets $40M a year and the team doesn’t have to pay him in his late 30s.
But the “way too low”, “not even close” responses that are in your head right now shows how ridiculous this process has become.
Any other uniform and he doesn’t win, plain and simple.
Not sure what you are getting at. He carried his team on his back – a true MVP. It’s not because it’s the Yankees, as it has been quite some time since they had an MVP.
Highest WAR in the league, he absolutely wins.
An Angel wins almost every year. What are you talking about?
Trout deserved each and every one. He should have had at least one more in either 2012, 2013 or 2015, or all of them.
Ohtani deserved his too and if he had won this year only idiots would argue against it after he put up a top 5 season as both a hitter and a pitcher. No one has ever come close to being as good as he is now. It would have been well deserved.
Judge also deserved this award. He is now the true single season home run champ. Undisputed. He did that while coming very close to winning the old school triple crown. Incredible, magical season.
There is just no reason to try to put down other players to try to argue about this MVP award.
They went to the playoffs once. They deserved none of them. Putting up saber-metric stats while losing is not MVP worthy.
Hysterical considering several Yankee players over the past 20+ years could have arguably won awards and didn’t. But keep believing in the “Yankee-bias” and enjoy another string of terrible Angel seasons.
Congrats to him on his 2nd AL MVP…
Congrats Judge! Incredible, historic season.
It wasn’t unanimous or I think they would have said so.
Ohtani would have been deserving if he won it. His season was historic. Unprecedented. He was a Cy Young finalist and if this award had just been for best hitter he would have been a finalist for that too. Not even Ruth can say they were that good all around.
Ohtani just ran into a guy that became the real single season home run leader. Another historic season.
Baseball fans have been privileged to watch what these two have accomplished this season.
These are the kinds of posts I enjoy seeing as a fan of the game.
If you ask Judge himself, Bonds is the real single season home run leader.
@goastros123 I wonder how he really feels?
Judge is surely intelligent enough to know the deafening fallout resulting from him saying anything like, “Well, Bonds cheated, right? And all the other guys with more than the 62 I hit cheated, yeah? I mean, it’s clear, isn’t it, that they all took performance enhancing drugs to get there? I’m the real HR champ.”
He could end up in Cooperstown in 2037 and the only thing reporters would STILL be asking him would be, “Do you stand by the comments you made in 2022…”
@JackStrawb What if that is how he really feels? Regardless, it came straight from the horse’s mouth so I’m going to roll with it.
@goastros123 It could well be how it really feels, but I have to take it as one of those statements someone makes because any other statement is essentially impossible to make.
It’s like asking any press secretary if the president they work for is a liar. We know he is. They know he is. We know they know he is. They know we know….
But unless they’re three weeks from publishing their memoirs (and even then), the answer is always going to be, “No.”
@Jack Perhaps he just doesn’t care. The man was preparing for the playoffs when asked. “The numbers are the numbers” is what I would expect him to say in 2037, “how I personally feel isn’t going to change that.”
Probably the best of all possible answers.
Judge grew up 100 miles from the Giants’ ballpark and rooted for Bonds as a kid. He’s not going to turn on one of his boyhood idols.
You should be able to understand that, right, goastros? If I said Altuve wasn’t the legit AL MPV in 2017, would you agree with that?
Fink, what are you talking about? I did not say he was going to turn on Bonds nor did I suggest he was. I simply pointed out that he believes Bonds is the real record holder as a response to “Ohtani just ran into a guy that became the real single season home run leader. “
I misunderstood your reply to JackStrawb, goastros. My apologies.
All good.
I didn’t ask Judge. I know what the answer is and its Judge.
Once Bonds started using steroids everything he did before or after was thrown out the window. It doesn’t count to real fans. Only to those trying to make excuses for people like him who cheated the game and the fans and who stole money from players that were clean. Don’t be one of those people.
What about the pitchers who were juicing too? And the hitters on opposing teams who were juicing?
When SF lost the World Series to the Angels in 2002, the Angels roster included these guys listed in the Mitchell Report:
Brendan Donnelly
Scott Schoeneweis
Troy Glaus
Donnelly pitched five games in relief and got the win in Game 6, striking out two of the four batters he faced.
This was Glaus’s batting line in the Series: .385/.467/.846/1.313
Glaus hit three home runs in the Series. Bonds hit four. Glaus drove in the winning runs in Game 6.
Making Bonds the scapegoat for a league swimming in drugs is just too easy. Selig had to be hauled up to Capitol Hill and threatened by Sen. John McCain and Rep. Henry Waxman before he came up with an acceptable anti-drug policy. The owners dug the long ball.
We shouldn’t let Selig and all the other juicers use Bonds as a prop they can hide behind. The head of BALCO, Victor Conte, said the drug tests were so easy to beat that “only the dumb and the dumber” got caught.
You might be interested in this essay in The Times by Jeff Novitzky, the dogged investigator who pursued Bonds tenaciously. It’s entitled: “I Investigated Bonds and Clemens. Yes, They Belong in Cooperstown.”
nytimes.com/2021/12/30/opinion/hall-of-fame.html?s…
Fink – Absolutely correct. To say nobody else was juicing because they passed the tests is like saying nobody is driving over the speed limit because they weren’t pulled over.
I mean if Manny Ramirez can pass the tests for over a decade while likely juicing, who can’t?
Was a MLB problem not a player issue,
Players continue to look for an answer to being better,
Amphetamines, antidepressants, Lasik
I can’t blame Bonds, others were doing it and it was not illegal at the time, no testing
Who is a real fan and who isn’t is not up to you, BaseballisLife.
i may not like what players like bonds did during that era but i also just can’t throw out all the numbers. the fact is that over 75% of bb was juicing (the 75 is an educated guess i don’t think we will ever know the real answer) or the fact fans loved seeing sosa and mcguwire chase each other for the record or when bonds broke it few years later. i think why a lot of us are hung up on bonds and clemens is because they were aholes during there playing days and made themselves easy villains for us to hate. let’s just accept that it was a dark time in baseball and move on.
Wouldn’t trade Ohtani for Judge on any day.
Judge plays in a homerun stadium, easy for Yankees to be among league leaders.
Give me a player who excels in hitting and pitching, no comparison to who is most valuable, what a joke
Most outstanding – does not equal most valuable. There is no doubt what Ohtani os doing is unprecedented and outstanding – but to say he was the most valuable after Judge literally carried his team into the postseason is ignoring facts.
The award was most valuable, not outstanding
Being surrounded by other valuable players on his team, only tarnishes the accomplishments, while being on a losing team with less talent only shows how valuable ohtani is
Playoffs, I don’t think Judge showed up when needed to be valuable
Ohtani is definitely more talented all around. But Judge had tremendous pressure on him and played on a winning ball club. I think if Ohtani had the same pressure on him, he may or may not have performed as well. I think it’s easier to rack up stats when playing for a non-contender.
Pressure while on a winning team
What about pressure to carry a team on a losing team that faces all the better teams
How many times was Shohei booed by the fans in Anaheim?
Judge was booed in Yankee Stadium by a handful of moronic ingrates AFTER winning the AL home run crown and carrying his team all year.
Pressure? Anaheim is a ride in the teacups at Disneyland compared to Yankee Stadium. I’m not justifying the stupidity at Yankee Stadium, mind you. Just saying, there’s no other fan base as ruthlessly demanding as in the Bronx.
No other stadium is built in a way to enhance homeruns
If you want to lead the league in homeruns, Yankee stadium had always been designed to aid the hitters, always, note why so many Yankees are at the top
Ruth, mantle, maris, judge
@stroh I’m skeptical, tbh. Playing sports or working when it simply does not matter is one of the hardest things in the world to show up for, whereas focusing when people are watching is comparatively easy.
Also, even for the Angels you’re playing in front of tens of thousands of people, in front of cameras, in front of regional and national tv audiences, in front of and against your peers while also playing for many millions of dollars in your next deal….
There’s never an absence of pressure; real pressure.
Ohtani already was a superstar in Japan. Had he waited two extra years to come over stateside, MLB execs were predicting a $200MM+ contract for him as an unrestricted free agent. On top of LA’s media, he still has to deal with Japan’s today. The man can handle the pressure on the moon without a spacesuit. He’s not chasing money or stats, he wants to compete and win. Plain and simple.
Valuable as In not even come close to his team being .500 every year? No one is the MVP of the league on a losing team.
Tell that to Trout and all the other MVPs on losing teams.
Comments like that just show your own lack of knowledge of the game of baseball.
@21Clemente21 Same, but that has to do with expectations for 2023 and beyond. Judge is turning 31, Ohtani 28. That’s a lifetime in baseball.
Judge hit 30 home runs at home and 32 on the road. So much for the Yankee Stadium advantage.
Machado, another MVP finalist hit a total of 32 home runs, and Shohei hit a total of 34.
Judge drove in 131 runs, 36 more than Shohei, and he scored 133 runs, 43 more than Shohei. Judge’s OBP was .425, 69 points higher than Shohei’s.
Shohei is the best baseball player in the world, IMO. No one else can both pitch and hit at his level. But even factoring in his pitching, Judge had a higher bWAR and fWAR. WAR stands for Wins Above Replacement. Shohei is more phenomenol, but this year Judge was more valuable. It’s not a joke.
make that “phenomenal,” dang it!
@fink also doesn’t the nyy stadium work in the other teams favor? then again people are going to hate, there probably the same people that said nolan couldn’t hit outside of col. some players are just studs and hit anywhere, he!! judge could hit a moonshot on jupiter and they will still say “well it’s because of nyy stadium”
Agreed pink. And he should’ve won another mvp in his first full season in the league also, when he hit 52 home runs, well outpacing the competition. But it was said at the time that he was not consistent enough lol,hitting only .282 ,compared to Altuve’s 300 batting average, ironically which by today’s pundits standards is a relatively unimportant stat.
Judge had more runs, far more RBI, and a higher OPS+, wRC+, DRS, bWAR and fWAR than Altuve. Case closed.
Ye approves
Congratulations Aaron, From a Braves Fan, Good Luck This Off-season, and do what is right for you and your family
I think Yankee fans should be slightly perturbed by the fact Judge hasn’t re-upped yet. Not rocket science here. If both wanted it done, it would have happened by now. Hello San Francisco, you might have a new RF soon.
Nope – just a dance – that he earned.
More likely a Dodger then a Giant.
His agent needs to entertain and receive actual offers from other teams to leverage the Yankees. I’d be perturbed if he had already re-signed as his agent would have left stones unturned. Judge took a huge gamble on himself and won and earned the full payout.
I understand that inclination, but the reality is that it might work against everybody in the game- the teams and Judge- if teams keep running up offer amounts to force the Yankees to match until there are reported 10 year/$500M offers on the table or something and then the Yankees walk away and then no other team actually wants to sign Judge to that kind of contract and then it gets really awkward when Judge goes back to the Yankees for 2 or 3 fewer years and $10M less in AAV or he has to sign with another team on a pillow contract for like 1 year/$50M or something… it wouldn’t be the first time that had happened…
The Yankees know they’re the Yankees and they already tried to low ball Judge (relatively speaking) and got rebuffed only for Judge to increase his overall value with a historic season and an MVP trophy, so I think the Yankees will know what the market could potentially explode to with competing offers and just try to give Judge so close to that without going insane that he goes ahead and signs.
That’s a risk Judge takes that the Yankees can pull their offer in a high stakes game of negotiations. I highly doubt it will turn into another Correa situation as the Astros had only offered him only a 6-year deal. Correa also faced stiffer competition on the elite SS market. The Yankees have offered Judge 7 years during the past spring. Nimmo currently is his closest FA competition and isn’t on his same level.
He’ll be a Met before the year is over. If there was ever a power move for Cohen to make then this is it.
Nah
How will the LOLmets be able to sign Judge when they don’t have the money to keep most of their pitching staff?
All players in the top 10 had massive seasons this year and could have won MVP in other years, Judge had to break the AL HR record to edge them out. I dont think he should have been a runaway winner, but have no problem with him winning overall. I just hope he goes to the Dodgers or Padres now.
whoever he goes to will OVERPAY
That could be said of virtually every single year’s batch of top 10 MVP vote getters… and Judge’s average and solid defense would have still put him in the top 3.
Some players with more pedestrian power numbers but high WAR have won MVP before, so it wasn’t just about the HR’s– but a player like Judge is going to hit a ton of home runs if he’s got a high batting average.
No big surprise here. Too bad he didn’t win the Triple Crown (I’m a Red Sox fan by the way). Don’t think he’ll come close to another chance for the Triple Crown.
one of the best contract year hitting performances of all-time
Just think, the Braves could have drafted him just one pick before the Yankees… but we went with Oklahoma st pride Jason Hirsch I believe was his name … brutal
bravesfan, never knew that. Yikes..
Class guy who had a tremendous year. Congratulations.
Ramirez should have been a finalist over Alvarez
Put it in the books, does it really matter? He still wouldn’t have got a single 1st place vote.
Except Alvarez is better then Ramirez.
The Yankees would of made the postseason even without Judge, just like how they do every year hes been hurt. Ohtani clearly had the better year. If Ohtani’s breakout season was this year or if the Angels made the playoffs, Ohtani would of won the award
I love when fans use exaggerated comments to boost their weak arguments like: Ohtani clearly had the better year.
Clearly had a better year because Judge was on the Yankees I guess….
Lmao. Ohtani was even better then last year did not win . Decades from now they will laugh at this? This is a sports celebrates records from 80 or 90 years ago. lol
They might laugh at continually given votes to players who’s teams can’t go .500. How valuable are you if your team can’t win?
It always seems odd to punish a player for having lousy teammates.
How are they being punished. They are not valuable if they don’t win. What other sport do fans consider players on perennial sub .500 teams the best in the game? The answer is none. The true superstars in sports make those around them better. Maybe with runners in scoring position a superstar shouldn’t be looking for a walk but actually finding ways to score those runners. Imagine if Jordan decided to pass in crucial game situations to the worst players on the team every time.
Most people see MVP as the best player overall in their league, just like the Cy Young is the best overall pitcher in the league. Are you saying deGrom didn’t deserve the Cy Young award because he had a losing record and a lousy team? It’s very similar. the definition for MVP is left for interpretation so I will give you that that. I think most people see the MVP as the “best overall player” award as it should be in my opinion. If they want to make a distinction between the two there should be two different awards Imo. I don’t think any definition is necessarily correct though, if anything it’s an interesting debate.
I’m just not sure what value their is if the one and only goal of competing is winning. I’m not saying the MVP needs to be from the best team but from a team that at least has a shot at making the playoffs. If Pete Alonso hit 70 hrs next year and the Mets win 70 games , I would not expect him to be MVP.
If big meat Pete hit 70 homers I wouldn’t care if the Mets lost 100 games if he hits 70 he should be the MVP in my opinion. But there is real answer to the MVP question.
imo if they want to give the mvp to the best player then it should be named the best player award. way i look at it is who was the most valuable to there team and without them where would they be. i.e. take either nolan or goldy off the team with mo cards don’t win the division, take manny off the pads they don’t make the playoffs ect. ect.
I’m curious, would you do the same thing for the Cy Young? Give it to a pitcher on a winning team. I’m not arguing I’m just interested in hearing your thoughts.
i don’t look at the cy in the same manor even though a lot of people say it’s the pitchers mvp. i see the cy being best overall pitchers in there league not most valuable then again the cy was named after a player not named most valuable pitcher
also when it comes down to player y or x i usually want to see the award go to the player that played on a losing team
Who were the two not to place Judge first?
Beginning with his age 31 season two years ago, Giancarlo Stanton had 8 years and $233M on his deal, with $215M of it guaranteed. The Yankees seriously tried to offer Judge 7 years and $213M guaranteed knowing Stanton was his teammate, not on the same level in the field or in the clubhouse? Yankees should have been at $275M as now they will need closer to $325M guaranteed to get him signed.
What the Marlins signed Stanton for shouldn’t be of consideration. The universal response was the Yankees offer was good and Judge should have taken it. Judge went out and had an historic season. He bet on himself and will probably get an additional $100M guaranteed. Good for him.
@WampumWalloper It’s an excellent point, but I’m reluctant to use a bad contract as a guide to good or at least reasonable contracts. As we know, no one would have offered Stanton anything like $215m, guaranteed, as of the 2020-21 offseason.
In that vein I know deGrom and Verlander would like to use Scherzer’s contract as precedent, but that deal was done specifically to lure Scherzer to a Mets team that had been as ridiculous and offensive in Cohen’s first year as it had been throughout the Wilpons’ tenure. The Dodgers’ offer appears to have been 2/72m, which seems like a sane neighborhood for Verlander to settle in, whereas the Mets had to offer 3/130m to get Scherzer to risk a continuation of their circus in to the 2022 season.
Btw, the Yankees offer last offseason to Judge was actually higher than warranted by projection systems, according to the author of the fangraphs-based ZIPs system.
According to Dylan Hernandez the Dodgers offered Scherzer 2/85, very close to the same AAV, but would not go a third year guaranteed.
Jose Ramirez building a HOF career
Still haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere that Judge only tied Ruth for HR in a season’s first 154 games.
Poor Hal. Judge, MVP: Most Voluminous Payday
Cashman’s no gambler, but I’d be interested to see him let Judge and Rizzo walk, give Cabrera a 1Bman’s glove and let him put up 2 WAR there, and sign Nimmo, Rodon, and your bullpen monster of choice with that $60m AAV.
He already signed Rizzo, Jack. I’m still thinking Judge ends up in San Francisco.
People keep talking about Judge’s age and his injury history. Nimmo is 11 months younger than Judge and they both debuted in 2016. Since then, Judge has missed 177 days to injuries, and Nimmo has missed 256. Judge has played over 100 games in a season five times, and Nimmo has done it twice.
Judge has accumulated 37.0 bWAR to Nimmo’s 17.2.
If age and durability are issues with Judge, I don’t see how pivoting to Nimmo is the way to replace him.
I’d love to add Rodon. Been saying that since before the trade deadline. But I don’t see Cashman doing it. He keeps talking like the rotation is just fine as it is.
I’m sure the rotation is fine according to hal, and German is a perfectly fine number five pitcher also to him.
Congratulations to the REAL single-season home run king!
Judge is only good at beating up on bad pitching. The real MVP is Ohtani.
tyrone – You know Judge played 76 games against the AL East, right?
Yankee fans be like: Ohtanis good but the edge needs to go to the player on the playoff team
Also Yankee fans: PlAyOfFs ArEnT tAkEn InTo AfECt!!! DiSeGarD pLaYoFfS!!! idiots Ohtani is the real MVP.
He will win plenty of MVP awards when he plays in NY next year and actually has a winning team.
In that case, he’d play for the Astros with Yordan playing left field.
Latyrone thinks playoff stats aren’t taken into account for the mvp ….. because Yankee fans say so.
Lol I give up!
Vladdy Jr. didn’t win last year because he plays for a Canadian team.
This isn’t particularly controversial, and that’s not a knock on Ohtani. You can’t ignore 62 HRs and for that matter, his batting line is also extraordinary. They are clearly one and two, but for this season, Judge edges him out. That doesn’t mean I would trade Ohtani for Judge.
Remember when Yankees fans booed him for a three game cold streak in the playoffs? LOL
Aarron deserves the MVP twice over. However he did not break the HR record. But if someone is going to get 70 next year Aarron would be at the top of my list of those who would do it.
Props to Aarron, I hope you get there.. since you are in the AL and don’t play my pirates much… if you did… 80 would be a realistic number for you to reach.