After months of debate, the American League MVP race came down to one of the tightest margins in recent memory. On Thursday, New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge edged Seattle Mariners slugger Cal Raleigh to secure his third MVP in four seasons, becoming the 13th player in MLB history with at least three MVP awards. Among Yankees, only Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle had previously reached that mark.
Judge earned 17 first-place votes and 355 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, narrowly surpassing Raleigh’s 13 first-place votes and 335 points. Cleveland’s José RamÃrez placed third, followed by Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr.
Despite a brief IL stint for an elbow strain, Judge claimed his first batting title with a .331 average and launched 53 home runs, making him just the fourth player with four 50-homer seasons. He also broke an AL record with 36 intentional walks and paced the majors in OPS (1.144), wRC+ (204) and fWAR (10.1).
Raleigh, meanwhile, authored a historic campaign of his own, becoming only the seventh player to reach 60 home runs in a season. The switch-hitting catcher hit .247/.359/.589 with 125 RBI and shattered longstanding records for both primary catchers and switch-hitters.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].