No surprises here, as the two most dominant players in each respective leagues receive proper recognition for their baseball exploits.
The final major BBWAA Awards were announced on Thursday night, as Major League Baseball announced the winners of the MVP Award for both the National League and the American League. If you were looking for surprises then you may need to look elsewhere, as both New York Yankees OF Aaron Judge and Los Angeles Dodgers DH Shohei Ohtani won the AL MVP and the NL MVP Award, respectively, in unanimous fashion.
Shohei Ohtani made history in multiple ways with his third-career MVP victory. He’s now the first player to win MVP without playing in the field — he won the AL MVP Award in 2023 and 2021 as a DH but he also pitched during those seasons. He’s also just the second player in the history of the award to win MVP in both leagues, as he joins Frank Robinson who did it in 1961 with the Reds and then followed it up by doing it with the Orioles in 1966.
He’s also the only player in the history of the award to be voted MVP in unanimous fashion multiple times — and this is the third time. Just like Ronald Acuña Jr. locked up the MVP Award in 2023 with his 40/70 season, it was pretty much a certainty that Ohtani would win MVP once he clinched the 50/50 season. At this point, the only question now is just how many MVP Awards will Shohei Ohtani win by the time he’s done. He’s a truly special player.
Meanwhile, Aaron Judge won his second-career MVP as he continue to be one of the most dominant regular-season players in baseball. Bobby Witt Jr. had a fantastic season but it’s really a testament to Judge’s continued dominance that he won the MVP in unanimous fashion. Judge is now in the same company as Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Alex Rodriguez in the list of all-time Yankees greats who have won multiple MVP Awards while wearing pinstripes. Aaron Judge’s production at the plate is truly eye-popping and just like Ohtani, the sky is the limit when it comes to just how many MVP Awards Judge can rack up as long as he stays healthy.
Friday morning at 10 a.m. ET, MLB Network will announce the winner of the Heart & Hustle Award and Austin Riley has been nominated to represent the Atlanta Braves. Once that award is announced, that’ll be a wrap for Awards season. It’s been a fun one for the Braves, as Chris Sale picked up a bunch of hardware in order to commemorate a special season. Hopefully we’ll continue to have more fun once next season’s Awards week rolls around.