Aaron Judge is the MVP once again. The Baseball Writers Association of America announced this evening that the Yankee captain was the unanimous choice for the American League’s top player this year. Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals was the unanimous runner-up, getting all of the second-place votes. Judge’s teammate Juan Soto finished third in the voting.
Judge was the AL MVP in 2022, his 62-homer campaign. While he came up just shy of that in 2024 with “only” 58 home runs, he roughly kept pace with himself in most categories. His 24.3% strikeout rate was actually a personal best, slightly ahead of the 25.1% clip from his previous MVP campaign. His 18.9% walk rate was a few ticks better than the 15.9% clip from two years ago. His 10 steals were a bit of a drop from his 16 from two years back, but his 144 runs batted in were a gain of 13.
Overall, his offensive contributions led to a ridiculous .322/.458/.701 slash line this year. That translated to a 218 wRC+, indicating he was 118% better than league average this year. That was an improvement over his 206 wRC+ in 2022.
On top of his work at the plate, he also contributed in the field. While he’s primarily been a right fielder in his career, he spent a career-high 903 innings in center in 2024. While he didn’t receive strong marks for his work there, simply being able to play up the middle was valuable to the Yanks, given the demands of the position. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 11.2 wins above replacement on the year, a slight increase over his 11.1 fWAR in 2022.
That all-time performance made it an easy choice for voters. That’s unfortunate for Witt, who played at a level that’d be enough to win MVP in a lot of years. The Royals’ star shortstop led the majors with a .332 average and 211 hits. He slashed .332/.389/.588 with 32 homers and 31 steals while playing excellent defense. FanGraphs credited Witt with more than 10 WAR in his own right. Since Witt finished in the top three in MVP voting within his first three MLB seasons, the Royals receive an extra pick after the first round in next year’s draft.
Soto had arguably the best full season of his career, hitting 41 homers with a .288/.419/.569 slash in what may be his only year as a Yankee. This is his third top five MVP finish. Soto received 21 third-place votes. Gunnar Henderson and José Ramírez, who finished fourth and fifth respectively, were the only others to land in third on some ballots. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Tarik Skubal, Jarren Duran, Yordan Alvarez, Brent Rooker, Emmanuel Clase, Cal Raleigh, Rafael Devers, Anthony Santander, Jose Altuve, Seth Lugo, Corey Seager, Framber Valdez and Detroit reliever Tyler Holton also appeared on at least one ballot.
Full voter breakdown from BBWAA.
Elon’sDOGEbag
As expected! Well done.
Fever Pitch Guy
Heg – Agreed, congrats to Judge!
And also congrats to Duran for 8th place, he’s come a long way in 2 years.
TrillionaireTeamOperator
It’s the right thing to do. The regular season ain’t the post season. This was fair and accurate over the first 162 games of the 2024 season.
johncoltrane
very well deserved.
judge is a great person and a great ballplayer, the true single season HR record holder!
that being said he’s gotta hit better than .130 or .180 in the playoffs!
larkraxm
He does if he wants to secure a legacy of an all-time great Yankee. Captains win chips.
luclusciano
Agreed – but, Mattingly is on line one – has a question.
larkraxm
To answer his question, No. We would rather have a fake Yankee like Aaron Boone be our manager, because as much as we hate that idiot, he has a chip.
Keena
Who has a chip? Not Aaron Boone, with the Yankees. Although, the 2003 ALCS was the REAL World Series, when we punked the Red Sox in Game 7, remember, we went on to play “Yankee Baseball” in the World Series, and got hammered by the Marlins. I really do often wonder, had we not choked in that Game 7 against Arizona, in 2001, if the fortune of the Yankees franchise would have been different from 2002-2024. It seemed like that loss in Arizona, completely altered the Yankees forever, after that.I think 2009 was more of a fluke, than what has become reality.
johncoltrane
“Fortune of the yankee franchise”
“Completey altered the yankees forever”
lol hahahahaha
Poor yankees
Since 2001 only 3 pennants & 1 WS win
Those poor poor yanks and their suffering fans. Oh i hope they find a way to cope with only 27 total championships, and the greatest ballplayers in history including the reigning mvp
chiefivey
hes not the single season hr leader.
larkraxm
He has the American League single season HR record, and the only MLB player to ever reach 62 home runs without the stench of the steroid scandal on him. Thanks for the clarification, though.
Keena
Exactly. They should’ve removed the stench of Barry Bonds’ 73 HR season a long time ago. It’s truly a disgrace to baseball. In my book, Hank Aaron is still the home run King, and Aaron Judge is the single season HR King. And, Pete Rose is absolutely a HOF’er.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
All rise! Here comes the hall of fame for the judge!
letitbelowenstein
Aim a tad higher. The HOF is becoming more of a joke each year. Judge is definitely HOF material, but I’m basing it on the ‘real’ HOF standards.
FOmeOLS
Meh…I bet KC is plenty happy with BWj
letitbelowenstein
Witt would win the ‘truly’ valuable player award.
Joe says...
All Rise!!
CardsFan57
Congratulations! It’s very well deserved.
mlbnyyfan
@ Donnie never won a chip either. Hopefully he finds his way back to New York if/when they fire Boone.
Keena
Why? Mattingly isn’t a very good manager. Honestly, I’d rather have Girardi back, but Hal Steinbrenner is a loser, and will never fire Boone.
thegreatgoodbye
As a Yankee fan I am surprised it was unanimous. Thought for sure there would be an anti NY voter or very pro Bobby Witt voter
spudchukar
No arguements here! But BWJ deserves the recognition too!
Acoss1331
Judge needs a Terminator intro every time he comes to the plate, he’s a machine!
Canuckleball
For the regular season, yes.
For the postseason, maybe he should walk up to the theme from Pee Wee’s Playhouse.
Acoss1331
Well, this machine breaks down in October lol
whyhayzee
And immediately drops the trophy.
whyhayzee
Then Volpe bounces it off the ground.
whyhayzee
Then Cole looks at it and says, “Um, I think it’s broken”, but doesn’t bother to pick it up.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Then Steinbrenner comes back from the grave and fires everyone
ckc12537
Then Babe Ruth loudly burps and says “next round on me!’
dasit
soto and witt jr join the “great seasons that did not result in an mvp” list alongside henderson in 85 gwynn in 87 and arod in 96
King Floch
It was a pretty crazy year, Gunnar Henderson put up 37 HRs and 21 SBs with 9.1 rWAR/8.0 fWAR and wasn’t even in the conversation.
FOmeOLS
Crappy defense will do that to a guy’s chances.
King Floch
Soto was even worse, but okay.
I wasn’t even saying that Gunnar should have been in the MVP conversation anyway, my point was simply that a bunch of guys had monster years in 2024.
FOmeOLS
I was being a little snarky, but to your point, yes, Sotos defense is awful, but it’s never been anything else. Gunnar had a spectacular falling off, which makes his decline more noticeable and-probably-made more of a difference with the voters.
But yes, there were a lot of excellent players this season, and no mistake
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Gunnar would’ve if he kept that 50 homer pace he had around the all star break
His ceiling could be like 12 war since 37 is not a lot for him
sufferforsnakes
You forgot Albert Belle in 1995.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
How did mo Vaughan of all people win that year
King Floch
He had a pretty good year.
I guess.
TheGr8One
And Ohtani in the NL. MVP voting this year as clear cut as I can remember. Should be two unanimous selections
SadMsFan
Noooo, really? I was sure someone else was gonna win AL MVP. So surprising-so shocking!
denistaylor
Should be his 3rd…..if not for buzzer boy.
KnicksFanCavsFan
Well deserved. I hope he gets a chance to redeem himself next year in the world series and wins.
HalosHeavenJJ
Congrats to Judge on a truly outstanding season.
Witt’s season was also incredible. Hopefully he can win one some day.
TheGr8One
Witt deserved to get every second place vote I think that’s pretty cool
DarkSide830
Tyler Holton. Whoever’s ballot that is should no longer have a ballot.
Acoss1331
Always gotta have that one guy…
Tdat1979
Unanimous 2nd place for Witt. One of the best non MVP seasons.
Fraham_
Tyler Holton is like that time Kevin pillar got votes on the giants
Yanks4life22
The new Arod. MVP’s and regular season success but can’t do a thing in the playoffs.
Lucky for Arod he decided to stick a needle in his rear to shed the playoff stigma….how is Judge going to overcome it?
KnicksFanCavsFan
You really think steroids helps that situation?
Yanks4life22
Yes I do. Steroids help literally every single situation in baseball. There has never been anything but a positive effect on a players performance when using PED’s.
Begamin
arod was likely on roids during both being good and bad in the playoffs. baseball is streaky, welcome to the sport i guess
Yanks4life22
Grew up watching guys like Jeter, Bernie, O’Neil be anything but streaky. Then recently I just watched guys like Altuve and Betts win a bunch too. Seems like consistency is what separates good organizations from bad.
Welcome to winning baseball I guess?
9/11ths
Tyler Holton gets the Ryan Tepera treatment
Goose
Cool. Now he can pair it with his World Series Championship and MV….. Oh yeah..
jobusrum9
Can’t really argue this one. Maybe if Witt was within say .100ops then you could probably of made an argument for the guy who won a GG at SS and also carried his team to the post season. However they were almost .200 ops apart. That’s a huge like ridiculously huge margin.
Begamin
Yeah unfortunately for Witt, Judge had a historic offensive performance.
RoyalsFanAmongWolves
Unfortunately, as long as Aaron Judge exists in the American League Bobby WittJunior could hit 48 home runs, have a .392 average and still lose Aaron Judge if Aaron Judge only hit 42 home runs and had a 365 average.
Nats ain't what they used to be
Not saying Hilton deserved MVP votes but it was pretty tacky of article to list a bunch of vote getters without mentioning their team or positions than to single him out and say he was a RP on Detroit.
Nats ain't what they used to be
Horton. Darn autocorrect
YankeesBleacherCreature
Congrats Capt!
bestone
Hmmm….only 49 less stolen bases than the NL winner…Ohtani San.
Is it harder to steal bases in the AL?….but then again no one catches fly balls in the fifth inning like Mr. Judge.
He probably should get it though, for being a fine person and role model to the kids out there….
Begamin
what is this take lmao
The_M4N
@bestone, you want a sympathy like? (Cause you failed miserably.)
Yankeesforever
B.W.jr was in the unfortunate position of being Sham to Judge’s Secretariat.
olmtiant
Yankee forever… nice to see you back and prodding after WS… you’re posts right after WS , well I actually felt bad for you for and ONLY you as I know you’re a fan for awhile… I too dabble in Secretariat knowledge… so I love the reference… ( Sham did run 2nd fastest derby ever up till then) hopefully we sign some players so you won’t beat up on our triple A team no more…(2nd fastest derby since??? Monarchos….
bravesfan
It’s 100% deserved, but what stinks for him is this season will be tainted by fans (Yankees fans in particular) due to his postseason performance. I almost assure you he’ll be remember more for that than his amazing season
C.C. Kellygruber
Whichever writer put Tigers reliever Tyler Holton on their MVP ballot should have their voting privileges immediately and permanently revoked.
Stan Papi
Mr June I presume
Keena
How did DJ LeMahieu NOT win AL MVP? Come on!!! For being robbed of MVP, the Yankees should give DJLM another extension.