NEW YORK – Ask the people who share a clubhouse with Aaron Judge, and they’ll tell you he’s the best they’ve ever played with. On Thursday, the voters agreed, handing the Yankees' captain his third American League Most Valuable Player Award.
It marked the final verdict of a debate that trailed the Yankees through the season’s final months, with Judge’s dominance holding off a historic push from Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.
Judge became the 13th player to be named MVP at least three times, a list that includes Yankees legends Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle.
“It’s tough for me to wrap my head around it,” Judge said. “It’s really kind of mind-blowing. I just play this game to win. I play this game for my teammates, my family, all the fans in New York. I just want to go out there and give them my best every single day.”
Judge finished with 355 points and 17 of 30 first-place votes cast by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Raleigh received the remaining 13 first-place votes and 335 points. The Guardians’ José Ramírez finished third with 224 points.
It was a closer finish than in 2024, when Judge was selected unanimously, but it was the outcome the Yankees expected all season. They’d be preparing for a game and look up at the clubhouse TVs to see talking heads arguing that Raleigh’s historic 60-homer season would be enough to unseat their captain.
Judge never took the bait. And while his manager and teammates applauded Raleigh’s performance from afar, they never saw this going any other way.
“I don’t ever want to become desensitized by the consistency and the enormity of his accomplishments,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to use words to capture how good he is. He’s just playing at a higher level, and has been for quite some time.”
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Judge “has been playing in rarified air for much of his career.”
“He is a once-in-a-generation player who embodies so much of what is good about our game,” Cashman said. “Aaron is being celebrated again tonight, and rightfully so. He has blossomed into one of sports’ greatest superstars.”
Raleigh’s contributions on both sides of the ball made for a terrific argument, but ultimately, Judge gave the voters too much to ignore. The 6-foot-7 outfielder won the Major League batting title with a .331 average, becoming the tallest batting champion in the sport’s history.
Judge is just the third player in history to pair a batting title with at least 50 home runs, joining Mantle (1956) and Jimmie Foxx ('38). Judge’s 53 homers were the most by a batting champion.
“He doesn't take a swing that doesn't have purpose,” said hitting coach James Rowson. “It’s amazing to watch him every day and how meticulous his work is, plus all the things that he does on a daily basis just to get himself ready to play.
“I think people don't realize, with that size and that body, the things that it takes to be ready to play every night. He's an amazing player, and I don't know how many we're going to see like him.”
Judge led the Majors in on-base percentage (.457), slugging percentage (.688), OPS (1.145), times on base (310), intentional walks (36) and WAR per FanGraphs (10.1). He led the AL in runs (137), walks (124), extra-base hits (85) and total bases (372).
Judge was treated like Barry Bonds, drawing more intentional walks than every MLB team except the Yankees themselves -- and he did all of this while rehabbing a right flexor strain during the season.
“Hats off to our whole training staff to get me back out there, getting me healthy,” Judge said. “I wasn’t able to play as much right field as I wanted to and had to DH quite a bit when I came back. I think the biggest thing for me was just, with the elbow, you’re gripping the bat and trying to follow through on tough pitches.
“It was a challenge, but everybody deals with stuff throughout the year. You could probably ask Cal the same thing; his body was probably banged up in all sorts of different ways. You’ve just got to suck it up and go out there and play.”
Judge became the fifth player in the Expansion Era (since 1961) to lead the Majors in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging, and the first since the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera in 2013. In an era when batting average is often dismissed as an antiquated statistic, it still matters greatly to Judge.
“The biggest thing for me was, I wanted to hit for a higher average,” Judge said. “I want to get on base more. I feel like if I get on base more, I can score more runs. That’s just going to equal more wins.”
Judge, who won MVPs in 2022 and '24, is the 15th player to win consecutive MVP Awards. Judge and Shohei Ohtani, who won his third straight Thursday night, are the first to do it since Cabrera in '12-13.
It’s also the 23rd time that a Yankee has won the MVP, the most for any club. Judge joins DiMaggio (1939, '41, '47), Berra ('51, '54, '55) and Mantle ('56, '57, '62) as New York’s three-time winners – a group Judge described as “the Mount Rushmore Yankees.”
Judge also noted that those three “won a lot of championships,” one box that remains unchecked on his résumé. And while Judge will treasure MVP No. 3, he’d gladly swap it right now for a ring.
“I think I’d trade every award I’ve gotten and every All-Star appearance for an opportunity to win a championship,” Judge said. “That’s my main focus. That’s why I wake up every day.”