The Yankees star picked up his first career MVP on Thursday after hitting an American League record 62 home runs in one of the greatest offensive seasons in recent MLB history. Judge received 28 of 30 first-place votes from the BBWAA, with the other two going to Los Angeles Angels phenom Shohei Ohtani, last year’s winner of the same award. Both votes came from Los Angeles-based writers. For much of the season, the AL MVP race was seen as a two-man race between Judge, with a historic home run pace, and Ohtani, arguably improved from last year’s already historic two-way performance. In the end, Judge passing Roger Maris for the AL home run record put him on top (Ohtani also finished fourth in Cy Young voting). He finished the year hitting .311/.425/.686 with the aforementioned home run total plus league-leading totals in runs (133), RBI (131), OPS (1.111), walks (111), total bases (391) and bWAR (10.6). He also narrowly missed the Triple Crown, finishing five points behind Minnesota Twins slugger Luis Arráez’s .316. To put Judge’s value into perspective, the rest of the Yankees as a team hit .233/.312/.396, a collective .708 OPS. Closest MLB team at this point: 81-81 San Francisco Giants, tied for 20th in MLB hitting streak. The Yankees with 99 wins finished second in runs scored.
Where will Aaron Judge land in MLB free agency after MVP season?
Few, if any, contracts have gone as well as Judge’s, and he’s about to reap the rewards. The Yankees’ reported final offer was a seven-year, $213.5 million deal that would have been effective after this season, in which Judge played on the $19 million salary he received in his final year of arbitration. The judge is now counting on doing much, much more than that. It’s impossible to say how much this will be, but various outlets have made their estimates and guesses. MLB Trade Rumors has him getting eight years and $332 million. ESPN, nine years and $324 million. Bleacher Report, seven years and $280 million. Fangraphs, nine years and $315 million. The Athletic, eight years and $330 million. The story continues Aaron Judge has the MVP award and will soon receive a truckload of money. (Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images) One important thing to remember about Judge is that he’s probably older than you think, as he’ll be 31 next season. That’s older than some other players when they received their recent mega-deals, but it’s undeniable that Judge is one of the top players in MLB right now. The biggest question is where Judge will play next year. Conventional wisdom says never bet against the Yankees keeping their stars, but there are plenty of other teams with deep pockets and a need for a star out there, including Judge’s hometown Giants. The New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers also have vast financial resources, possibly more than the Yankees at this point, but the former is now reportedly under investigation for their lack of interest in Judge. A first baseball St. Louis Cardinals has been one of the biggest stories in baseball this season. A different one ended up winning MVP. Paul Goldschmidt earned his first career MVP on Thursday after an impressive season at the plate, hitting .317/.404/.578 (an NL-best .981 OPS) with 35 homers and 115 RBI. Goldschmidt had already received the NL Hank Aaron Award as the league’s top player, and now he has been recognized as its top player. Goldschmidt received 22 first-place votes, while runner-up Manny Machado had seven and Nolan Arenado one. Paul Goldschmidt gets his first MVP award, at age 35. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images) Along with teammates Arenado and Tommy Edman, Goldschmidt formed one of the most effective trios MLB has seen in years. The Cardinals were the first team since the 2011 Boston Red Sox to have three different players post at least six bWAR, per Baseball Report, helping them to an NL Central title. The 35-year-old Goldschmidt previously finished in the top 3 in MVP voting three different times, but now the honor is his.
