"You're up against Yordan Alvarez & Shohei Ohtani" - When Aaron Judge confessed he was nervous before being crowned 2022 AL MVP
In 2022, Aaron Judge was nothing but locked in at the plate. Baseball fans witnessed one of the best seasons by any player in MLB with the slugger hitting home run after home run.
Judge finished the regular season with 62 home runs, breaking the American League single-season home run record. It was previously held by another New York Yankees slugger, Roger Maris, who hit 61 in 1961.
That all but cemented his MVP status, but with players like Shohei Ohtani and Yordan Alvarez, you always have to look over your shoulder. He detailed how nervous he was before learning he had won the AL MVP Award.
"[I was] extremely nervous, are you kidding me? You're going up against Yordan Alvarez, one of the top premiere hitters in this game and Shohei Ohtani is by far one of the best players on this planet," said Judge.
While he had a great season, Judge still was not sure if he did enough to beat out Ohtani and Alvarez. Both certainly had good enough seasons to put their names in the running, but nothing comparable to what Judge did.
"I was pretty nervous going into this because both of those guys had an incredible year and it's been fun competing with them over the years" said Judge.
Aaron Judge has eyes set on second AL MVP Award
With one AL MVP Award in his name, Aaron Judge is looking at his second in 2024. Through 158 games, he hit .322/.458/.701 with 58 home runs and 144 runs batted in. He led all hitters in home runs, RBIs, OBP, OPS, and SLG.
Toward the end of the season, he started running away with the MVP odds. In August, he was -900 to win the award and closed out at -4000. The next closest player is Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. with +1100 odds.
If Judge wins his second MVP Award, he will join a short list of active players with multiple MVPs. Mike Trout leads the way as the only active player with three while Shohei Ohtani and Bryce Harper both have two.
However, that is expected to change as Ohtani is the odds-on favorite to win the National League MVP Award. If he does, he will join his former teammate as the only two active sluggers with three apiece. And he would have the opportunity to keep adding more to his mantle for years to come.