New York Yankees’ outfielder Aaron Judge won his second American League MVP Award, sweeping all 30 votes.
Judge, who also won this award in 2022, is the 17th multiple winner in the American League. He joins a list that features three-time winners Jimmie Foxx (1932-33, 1938), Joe DiMaggio (1939, 1941, 1947), Yogi Berra (1951, 1954-55), Mickey Mantle (1956-57, 1962), Alex Rodriguez (2003, 2005, 2007) and Mike Trout (2014, 2016, 2019) and fellow two-time winners Hank Greenberg (1935, 1940), Hal Newhouser (1944-45), Ted Williams (1946, 1949), Roger Maris (1960-61), Robin Yount (1982, 1989), Cal Ripken Jr. (1983, 1991), Frank Thomas (1993-94), Juan Gonzalez (1996, 1998), Miguel Cabrera (2012-13) and Shohei Ohtani (2021, 2023).
This marks the 22nd 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 DiMaggio (1939, 1941, 1947), Berra (1951, 1954-55) and Mantle (1956-57, 1962); fellow two-time winners Maris (1960-61) and 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).
Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. finished second, taking all 30 second-place votes. It is the first time in AL MVP voting that the winner received all the first-place votes and the runner-up got all the second-place votes. This has happened only once before in BBWAA MVP balloting. That was last year in the National League with winner Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves receiving all 30 first-place votes and runner-up Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers getting all 30 second-place votes.
Judge’s victory is the 14th for a center fielder in the AL. He also played there in most of his games in 2022. Judge is on the list with three-time winners DiMaggio, Mantle and Trout along with Yount, Fred Lynn (1975) and Ken Griffey Jr. (1997). Yount was a shortstop when he won his first MVP Award in 1982. His team, the Milwaukee Brewers, moved to the NL in 1998. Center fielders have 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).
Witt’s runner-up finish was the highest by a Royals player since 1985 when George Brett ran second to Mattingly. Kansas City had runners-up in three consecutive elections – John Mayberry in 1975, Brett in 1976 and Al Cowens in 1977. Brett is the only Royals player to have won the award, in 1980.
Judge, Witt, the Yankees’ Juan Soto, the Baltimore Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson and the Cleveland Guardians’ José Ramírez were named on every ballot.
