New York Yankees superstar captain Aaron Judge has unanimously won the second MVP Award of his remarkable career, taking home the honor for the American League on Thursday night.
Judge is now the seventh Yankee to win multiple MVPs in their career, joining all-time greats: Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle (won three MVPs), Roger Maris and Alex Rodriguez.
Judge produced a monstrous campaign in 2024, where he slashed .322/.458/.701 with a 1.159 OPS, 223 OPS+, 58 home runs, 144 RBI, 122 runs scored and a 10.8 bWAR in 158 games.
Judge led all of baseball in WAR, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, OPS+, homers, RBIs and walks with 133. He was also the first batter to produce a slugging-percentage of .700 or higher since the great Barry Bonds did it back in 2004.
The 32-year-old got off to a slow start, hitting .197/.331/.393 in his first 122 at-bats of the regular season, but he caught fire in early-May and wound up producing one of the best offensive seasons in MLB history.
Judge's first MVP Award came back in 2022 when he set the AL home run record with 62 long balls during the campaign. He was somehow able to top his overall performance from two years ago in every major statistical category besides homers, where he came up four shy of tying his own record.
The Yankees reached their first World Series in 15 years this past October. But in the postseason, Judge hit a bit of a wall, slashing just .184/.344/.408 with a .752 OPS, three homers and nine RBI in 14 games. He also dropped a fly ball in center field in Game 5 of the Fall Classic, which saw the Yankees unravel in a fifth inning that ultimately led to their elimination at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Regardless, Judge still had a historic season in pinstripes, and there wasn't much question to who was most deserving of the award this year.
Behind Judge, Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. came in as the runner-up, and 2024 teammate and fellow superstar outfielder Juan Soto came in third-place.
