Aaron Judge won his second career American League MVP award on Thursday, for a season that might have been even more impressive than the 62-homer campaign that won him his first.
The New York Yankees star was voted the unanimous winner by the 30-person BBWAA voting body, his first time receiving every first-place vote. In 2022, he lost two votes to Shohei Ohtani, who unanimously won the NL MVP minutes later on Thursday.
The voting was also unanimous for second place, with Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals sweeping the second-place votes. Judge’s teammate Juan Soto, Gunnar Henderson of the Baltimore Orioles and José Ramírez of the Cleveland Guardians all received third-place votes.
Judge joins Mickey Mantle (1956) as the only Yankees players to win MVP unanimously.
It was an extraordinary season for Judge, who posted career highs in all three slash line numbers at .322/.458/.701 while clubbing 58 home runs, four short of his AL season record and what many consider to be the clean record. He joined Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Babe Ruth and Ken Griffey Jr. as the only players with multiple 55-homer seasons, and he became the first player with 140 RBI since 2009.
All of that history makes it easy to forget that Judge had a slow enough start to the season that some observers were worrying the 32-year-old was beginning to show signs of age. At the end of April, he was hitting .207/.340/.414 with a 27% strikeout rate and only six homers.
Those worries went away quickly. Over the next 98 games, Judge hit an unfathomable .376/.506/.846 with a homer in more than 10% of his plate appearances.
No MLB hitter is more feared than Judge when he’s on. Of course, that wasn’t the narrative around him once the playoffs began.
What of Aaron Judge’s postseason?
Judge had a regular season to remember and a postseason to forget. The latter didn’t affect the MVP voting, as the BBWAA submits its votes before the playoffs begin. In this case, the system created some awkwardness.
After entering the 2024 playoffs with a reputation for choking in the postseason, Judge further hurt himself with a .184/.344/.408 performance across 14 games. It didn’t stop the Yankees from reaching the World Series, but it sure was costly in a Fall Classic in which Judge was billed as a marquee star alongside Ohtani. The Dodgers superstar also underperformed, but he had the excuse of playing through a torn labrum in his left shoulder after Game 2….