One of the main storylines heading into the final weeks of the MLB regular season centers on the 2022 American League MVP Award race between Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani and New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge.
As of late, the two superstars have continued to bolster their respective resumes for the honor. Judge not only leads the AL in a multitude of hitting stats, but he is also on pace to soon break the record for the most home runs in a season in AL history. On the other hand, Ohtani is making a strong case to finish in the top five of the final vote for both the AL MVP Award and AL Cy Young Award.
Over the past weeks, debates have dragged on regarding just which of these two all-around talents should take home this season's AL MVP Award. From Yankees manager Aaron Boone's standpoint, he is backing Judge to win the prestigious honor for the first time in his career.
On Thursday, Boone laid out a case for why Judge should prevent Ohtani from winning the AL MVP Award for the second consecutive year.
“I get it,” Boone said. “Ohtani, it's unreal what he is doing on both sides of the ball. When I look at what Aaron Judge is doing this year — and again, it's in context of the rest of the league. He's got an 1.100 OPS … [Paul] Goldschmidt's probably within 100 of that or so, everyone else is low 900s. 57 homers, the next guy is 37. He's stealing bases. He's playing center field. He's gotten big hit after big hit. He's everything an MVP would ever be.
“It is hard for me to envision him not winning the award.”
In the big picture, there is still plenty of baseball to be played this season and several feats for both Ohtani and Judge to reach in the coming weeks. Ohtani is 12 RBI and 12 strikeouts away from a 100 RBI and 200 strikeouts season. And for Judge, he does have a viable shot at winning the AL Triple Crown.
It sure is shaping up to be a hectic finish to this year’s AL MVP Award race.
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