Unlike in the National League, where Shohei Ohtani was unanimously voted as the league MVP, the result of the American League MVP award was always going to be more heavily disputed. There were two very worthy finalists in Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh, both of whom enjoyed fantastic seasons.
In the end, Judge won. It’s hard to argue that he wasn’t deserving, even if there’s a laundry list of reasons Raleigh was also deserving. The decision from the Baseball Writers Association of America to select Judge was a narrow one. The Yankees outfielder took home 17 of the 30 first-place votes, with Raleigh claiming the other 13. Neither player received a single vote below second place. Judge had 13 second-place votes, and Raleigh had 17. Judge won by 20 points, 355–335, in what was an incredibly close race.
