Aaron Judge on Thursday learned that he had won the American League Most Valuable Player award for the first time in his career. The New York Yankees outfielder received 28 of the possible 30 first-place votes, while Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani received the other two.
Judge, who slugged 62 home runs during the regular season, joined MLB Network for an interview during the presentation of the award. His Yankees teammate, Giancarlo Stanton, presented him with the award.
Stanton was elated to present Judge with the honor, and Judge was grateful to receive the award. But Judge apologized to Stanton for one thing.
“Sorry for beating you out on the tallest MVP now,” Judge joked to his teammate.
“What can I do?” Stanton laughed in response.
Stanton, 33, won NL MVP in 2017 with the Marlins. The 6-foot-6, 245-pound outfielder has been with the Yankees since 2018. Judge, 30, is listed at 6-foot-7 and 282 pounds, so he barely edges out Stanton in the height category.
Judge led the AL this year in runs (133), homers (62), RBI (131), walks (111), on-base percentage (.425), slugging percentage (.686) and OPS (1.111). He had a monster season, which was enough to convince most voters to put him first over Ohtani, who had a strong season at the plate and finished fourth in Cy Young Award voting.
Judge now has the AL MVP award to add to his trophy case, in addition to AL Rookie of the Year, three Silver Sluggers, and four All-Star appearances.
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