Yankees' Aaron Judge Wins AL Most Valuable Player Award
New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has been voted the American League Most Valuable Player for the 2022 season, beating out Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.
Judge received 28 first-place votes. Ohtani got two first-place votes while Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez came in third place. José Ramírez of the Guardians and Jose Altuve of the Astros finished in fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Carrying the Yankees through the highs and lows of their 99-win season, Judge captured the baseball world with his historic performance, swatting 62 home runs to set the new single-season record in the American League.
He did much more than hit homers, though. Judge led the league in fWAR (11.4), runs scored (133), RBI (131), OPS (1.111) and wRC+ (207), flirting with a Triple Crown with his .311 batting average. It will go down as one of the best offensive performances in Major League Baseball history.
Judge stayed healthy all year long, appearing in 157 games. He played elite defense, often swapping over from right field to center field. Down the stretch, while his teammates struggled immensely, Judge continued to produce, making sure New York avoided a historic collapse to still win their division.
Now, the focus transitions back from Judge's remarkable performance to what uniform he'll wear in 2023 and beyond. Judge was in the final year of his contract with the Yankees, betting on himself by turning down a lucrative extension offer from New York before Opening Day. The Yankees are in position to re-sign the superstar and keep him in pinstripes, but other teams will be interested, looking to pry him away from the club that drafted him.
With his first career MVP Award, Judge joins Thurman Munson as the only Yankee to ever win both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player, as noted by Sarah Langs of MLB.com. The slugger hit 52 home runs during his record-setting rookie season in 2017, finishing in second for MVP behind Altuve.
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