Yankees star Aaron Judge wins his second AL MVP award in three seasons
NEW YORK — New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge was a unanimous pick to win his second American League Most Valuable Player Award in three seasons Thursday, easily outdistancing Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.
Judge was a unanimous pick for the first time. Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. got all 30 second-place votes for 270 points, and Yankees outfielder Juan Soto was third with 21 third-place votes and 229 points.
Judge had discussed the MVP award with Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper, the NL winner in 2015 and ’21.
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“I was telling him, ‘Man, I’m going to try to catch up to you with these MVPs here, man,’” Judge recalled. “He’d say, hopefully, he could stay a couple ahead of me, which I think he’ll do.”
Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers, 144 RBIs and 133 walks while hitting .322. Witt topped the big leagues with a .332 average, hitting 32 homers with 31 stolen bases and 109 RBIs. Soto batted .288 with 41 homers and 109 RBIs.
When Judge won his first MVP award in 2022, he received 28 first-place votes while then-Angels star Shohei Ohtani got the other two. Judge is the Yankees’ 22nd MVP winner, four more than any other team.
Judge was hitting .207 with six homers and 18 RBIs through April, then batted .352 with 52 homers and 126 RBIs in 127 games.
“March and April were not my friend this year,” Judge said. “Just keep putting in the work and things are going to change. You can’t mope. You can’t feel sorry for yourself. Especially in New York, nobody’s going to feel sorry for you. So you just got to go out there and put up the numbers.”
Balloting was conducted before the postseason.
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