Yankees’ outfielder Aaron Judge picked up 28 of 30 votes on his way to winning the American League MVP Award.
This marks the 21st time that a Yankees player has been honored, the most MVP Awards overall for one club in BBWAA voting dating to 1931. The St. Louis Cardinals are second with 18, the most in the National League. Judge joins three-time winners Joe DiMaggio (1939, 1941, 1947), Yogi Berra (1951, 1954-55) and Mickey Mantle (1956-57, 1962); two-time winners Roger Maris (1960-61) and Alex Rodriguez (2005, 2007) as well as Lou Gehrig (1936), Joe Gordon (1942), Spud Chandler (1943), Phil Rizzuto (1950), Elston Howard (1963), Thurman Munson (1976) and Don Mattingly (1985).
Judge is the 12th former American League Rookie of the Year Award winner (2017) to go on to win an MVP Award, including Fred Lynn (1975) and Ichiro Suzuki (2001), the only players to win both awards in the same season. There have been 18 NL Rookie of the Year winners who also were MVPs. Included in those lists are two players who won the awards in alternate leagues: Frank Robinson (NL Rookie of the Year in 1956, AL MVP in 1966) and Dick Allen (NL Rookie of the Year in 1964, AL MVP in 1972). Others to win both awards in the AL were Munson, Rod Carew, Cal Ripken Jr., José Canseco, Dustin Pedroia, Justin Verlander, Mike Trout, Jose Abreu and Shohei Ohtani.
Although he has been a right fielder most of his career, Judge played more games and innings in center field (78 and 632 ?) than right field (73 and 491 ?) in 2022, which makes this the 13th victory for a center fielder in the AL. He joins three-time winners DiMaggio, Mantle and Trout along with Lynn, Robin Yount (1989) and Ken Griffey Jr. (1997). Yount was a shortstop when he won his first MVP Award in 1982. His team, the Brewers, moved to the NL in 1998. A center fielder has won the award in the NL six times – twice apiece by Willie Mays (1954, 1965) and Dale Murphy (1982-83) and once each by Willie McGee (1985) and Andrew McCutchen (2013).
This election marked the ninth time in AL MVP voting that the previous year’s winner finished as the runner-up. Ohtani, who won the award last year, is now on a list that includes DiMaggio (1948), Berra (1956), Mattingly (1986), Jimmie Foxx (1939), Hal Newhouser (1946), Ted Williams (1947), Jason Giambi ( 2001) and Trout (2015).There have also been nine such cases in the NL: Albert Pujols (2006 and 2010), Chuck Klein (1933), Dizzy Dean (1935), Stan Musial (1949), Barry Bonds (1991), Terry Pendleton (1992), Ryan Braun (2012) and Christian Yelich (2019).
At 6-foot-7, Judge is the tallest MVP winner ever in either league. The previous tallest MVP was his Yankees teammate, 6-foot-6 Giancarlo Stanton, the NL winner with the Marlins in 2017. The previous tallest winners in the AL were 6-foot-5 Frank Thomas (1993-94), Joe Mauer (2009) and Justin Verlander (2011). NL winners who were also 6-foot-5: Dave Parker (1978), Kris Bryant (2016) and Freddie Freeman (2020).
Judge, Ohtani and Yordan Alvarez were listed on every ballot.
Ballots, submitted before the postseason, were cast by two writers in each league city. They are tabulated on a system that rewards 14 points for first place, nine for second, eight for third on down to one for 10th.
2022 AL MVP
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Judge, Yankees | 28 | 2 | 410 | ||||||||
| Shohei Ohtani, Angels | 2 | 28 | 280 | ||||||||
| Yordan Alvarez, Astros | 22 | 8 | 232 | ||||||||
| José Ramírez, Guardians | 6 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 186 | ||||
| Jose Altuve, Astros | 6 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 142 | |||
| Andrés Giménez, Guardians | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 141 | ||
| Julio Rodríguez, Mariners | 1 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 108 | |||
| Mike Trout, Angels | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 90 | ||||
| Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 50 | ||||
| Justin Verlander, Astros | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 44 | ||||
| Bo Bichette, Blue Jays | 2 | 3 | 2 | 16 | |||||||
| Adley Rutschman, Orioles | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 14 | ||||||
| Luis Arraez, Twins | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | |||||||
| Rafael Devers, Red Sox | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 | |||||||
| Kyle Tucker, Astros | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | |||||||
| Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||||||||
| José Abreu, White Sox | 1 | 5 | |||||||||
| Alek Manoah, Blue Jays | 1 | 3 | 5 | ||||||||
| Alex Bregman, Astros | 1 | 4 | |||||||||
| Yandy Díaz, Rays | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Framber Valdez, Astros | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Sean Murphy, Athletics | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Dylan Cease, White Sox | 1 | 1 |