Blue Jays: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer named as nominees for the Hank Aaron Award

The award was created in the 1999 season to celebrate Hank Aaron breaking the all-time home run record. It’s given to a player who had the best offensive performance, one for the American League and one for the National League.

Springer is a significant reason the Blue Jays were able to improve from a 74-88 record to a 94-68 record, the third-best in Major League Baseball. As a whole, Springer slashed .309/.399/.560 with 32 home runs in 586 plate appearances, leading the Jays in home runs and posting a 5.2 fWAR, his second-best season. Not too shabby for a 36-year-old who everyone thought would regress even further.

Guerrero Jr. didn’t have as strong a season as his 2024, nor the 2021 season, but he finished the 2025 season slashing .292/.381/.467 with 23 home runs in 680 plate appearances for a 137 wRC+ and 3.9 fWAR. Guerrero Jr. is the most recent Blue Jay to win it back in 2021. It was the fifth time a Blue Jay had won the award. He was also nominated for the award in 2024.

The first was in 2000, as Carlos Delgado was the second player in the American League to win it after it was introduced before the 1999 season. It was a decade before the Jays won it again, as José Bautista won the award in 2010 and 2011 after two massive seasons. Bautista was on the Blue Jays the next time a Jay won the award, as Josh Donaldson won the American League MVP and the Hank Aaron Award in 2015.

That said, this season’s AL Hank Aaron Award will either go to Judge or Raleigh. Judge, a two-time winner of the award, slashed .331/.457/.688 with 53 home runs in 679 plate appearances this season. Raleigh slashed .247/.359/.589 with 60 home runs in 705 plate appearances, breaking numerous records, including the most home runs for a catcher.

Still, the Blue Jays are the only team in the American League with two nominees, showing that they had a terrific season with the bats.