Judge handily beats out Ohtani for MVP of American League
Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees won the American League MVP award on Thursday night, and St. Louis Cardinals slugger Paul Goldschmidt took the NL prize.
After hitting 62 home runs this season to break the AL record, Judge easily beat out Angels two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani in an MVP race some thought might be close.
The 6-foot-7 outfielder received 28 of 30 first-place votes and two seconds for 410 points from a Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America panel. Ohtani, last year’s winner, was picked first on two ballots and second on the other 28 for 280 points.
“It’s tough to put in words,” Judge said in an interview on MLB Network. “It’s an incredible moment. A lot of hard work to get to this.”
Goldschmidt took the NL trophy for the first time after a couple of close calls earlier in his career. The first baseman received 22 of 30 first-place votes and eight seconds from a separate BBWAA panel.
Now a free agent, Judge broke the AL record of 61 homers set by Yankees slugger Roger Maris in 1961.
Judge, the tallest MVP in major league history, also led the majors in runs (133), on-base percentage (.425), slugging percentage (.686) and total bases (391). He tied for the big league lead with 131 RBIs and was second in the AL with a .311 batting average.
Ohtani put together perhaps the greatest two-way season in baseball history for a third-place Angels team that finished 73-89.
The superstar from Japan went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA and 219 strikeouts in 28 starts on the mound covering 166 innings. At the plate, he batted .273 with 34 homers, 95 RBIs and an .875 OPS.
Ohtani in WBC
Ohtani announced on Instagram that he “officially informed” Team Japan that he “would like to participate” in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, which takes place March 8-21 in Tokyo, Miami, Phoenix and Taichung, Taiwan.
Japan is part of the tournament’s Pool B, which plays its opening-round and quarterfinal games at the Tokyo Dome.
— Sarah Valenzuela
Etc.
The Arizona Diamondbacks
acquired outfielder and 2020 AL rookie of the year Kyle Lewis from the Seattle Mariners for catcheroutfielder Cooper Hummel. ... The San Diego Padres announced that reliever Robert Suarez signed a fiveyear deal that runs through 2027 . ... The Texas Rangers will host the 2024 All-Star Game . ... Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed that MLB was looking into potentially improper communication between the New York Mets and Yankees regarding Judge and said he was confident the inquiry would find no issues after a story on SNY.com, the website for the Mets’ television network, said a “mutually respectful relationship” between Mets owner Steve Cohen and Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner would prevent a “high-profile bidding war” for Judge.