NEW YORK — Although the postseason seedings have yet to be decided, with one notable exception — the National League MVP race — we’ve seen enough to determine the deserving individual honors. Everyone has their opinions, many even have actual votes, but here are our picks for baseball’s 2022 awards (Stats through Friday):
American League Most Valuable Player
With all due respect to the great two-way Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge is the AL MVP for a number of reasons. Not only did Judge put together one of the greatest single seasons in baseball history, he carried the Yankee offense, which sputtered through much of the season. And without him, the Yankees certainly would not have run away with the AL East the way they did. Judge plays every day, leads the majors in nine different categories and is superb defensively in both right and center field. And yes we know Ohtani’s 15 victories are third-most in the AL and his 34 homers fourth. But he did it for a team that is 15 games under .500 and 31 games out of first place. Any other year Ohtani would probably be the MVP, but this year Judge was far more valuable to the Yankees.
