"Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres made my job easy" - Aaron Judge explains preference for RBIs over home runs
New York Yankees star Aaron Judge bagged his second career AL MVP award on Thursday after coming off his third 50+ home run season in the MLB. Compared to his first MVP award in 2022 when he broke the AL record with 62 home runs, he recorded 58 homers this year but had more RBI and a higher OPS this year.
Speaking on "Sportscenter" on Friday after winning the award, Judge explained why he prefers RBIs over home runs:
"The game is all about scoring runs... So for me it's all about RBIs. That's how you win ball games.
"Getting the chance to hit behind Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres, those guys are on base constantly. They made my job easy, just put it in play and good things are gonna happen," he added.
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Having started his major league career with the Bronx Bombers in 2016, Aaron Judge came close to winning the AL MVP in 2017 when he finished second in the voting. He finally won the award in 2022 when he recorded the best offensive season of his career, hitting a record-breaking 62 home runs in the regular season. Judge has now become only the seventh Yankee in history to win more than one MVP award.
After an impressive regular season in the MLB, Yankees duo Aaron Judge and Juan Soto were both finalists for the MVP award, accompanied by Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. Judge recorded a .322 average with 144 RBI and 1.159 OPS, which are all career-high numbers for the slugger.
After winning the award, he spoke on the importance of RBIs to win games and how his teammates helped him record the best offensive season of his career.
Aaron Judge shares important lesson he learned from Derek Jeter after MVP win
Having won his second career AL MVP this week, Aaron Judge shared an important lesson he learned from watching Derek Jeter play for the New York Yankees. When asked about maintaining a high standard every year, he revealed that he learned it by watching Jeter play:
"He played every single game, every single season like somebody was coming for his job and he kind of passed that down on to the next generation."
Jeter himself is a Yankees icon who has won five World Series titles and one AL MVP award during his playing days. He has been an inspiration to a whole generation of players and announced Judge's MVP win on Thursday.