Who is the player of the year? 50 home runs - 50 steals Ohtani vs. Integrated home run - RBI king Judge...The experts must be confused, too
Oct 03, 2024
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Ohtani is a member of the National League (NL) and Judge of the American League (AL), so there is no fight for the individual award that distinguishes the two leagues, but regardless of the league, he will be in a competitive relationship.
First of all, the start is Judge's victory. Judge won the honor by beating Ohtani in the major league player of the year selected by the baseball magazine Baseball America. BA delivered the news on its website on the 2nd (Korea time) with an article titled 「Aaron Judge: BA's 2024 MLB Player of the Year」.
BA is the 16th captain of the Yankees franchise, Judge ranked first in both leagues in on-base percentage (0.458), slugging percentage (0.701), home run (58), RBI (144), walk (133), wRC+ (218), and fWAR (11.2) this year. He marked a career high of 0.322, ranking third after Bobby Witt Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and started 105 games as center field in defense, helping the Yankees win 94 games to give them the No. 1 seed in the AL playoffs.
Judge won the award for the first time in 2022 when he hit the most 62 home runs in an AL season, making him the second in his career 'BA Player of the Year'.
In fact, even if Ohtani received it, there would have been little disagreement. Ohtani marked 54 home runs and 59 steals, becoming the first player in major league history to reach 50-50, and had a historic season. The two leagues ranked first in scoring (134) and Ruta (411), and first in NL home runs, RBIs (130), on-base percentage (0.390), slugging percentage (0.646), OPS (1.036) and OPS+ (190). His batting average (0.310) and stolen base were second in the NL. However, fWAR (9.1) and wRC+ (181), ranked third and second respectively, failed to overcome Judge's stronghold.
Ohtani has already become the main character of the award on two occasions, in 2021 and 2023, when he wrote the myth of playing both sides.
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The players' union's player of the year is decided by a vote of major leaguers, and Ohtani and Judge have been selected side by side once. Ohtani won in 2021, the first season of the full-time pitching and hitting, and Judge won in 2022, when he hit 62 home runs. Last year, Atlanta Braves Ronald Acuña Jr., who achieved 40 home runs and 70 steals for the first time in the Major League, became the winner of the award.
The same goes for the Baseball Digest Player of the Year category. Ohtani received the honor of 2021 and Judge of 2022. Like the Player of the Year Award of the Players' Union, Acuña Jr. won last year. The award is selected by a vote of the 'blue-ribbon' panel consisting of reporters, broadcast casters, former major leaguers and directors, and former frontbenchers.
Sporting News' Player of the Year Award, which began in 1936 and has the longest history, was also decided in the order of Otani in 2021, Jersey in 2022, and Acuña Junior in 2023.
Even if Judge won the BA Player of the Year, it is difficult to expect Ohtani to be pushed back in the rest of the awards. This is because there are also many opinions that Ohtani is dominant.
In the case of Ohtani, he received the Commissioner's Historical Achievement Award' in 2021, which is determined by the Commissioner's judgment, so it is not yet known whether this year's winner will be awarded. Established in 1998, the award is given to players or teams (groups) who have achieved historically significant achievements, with no winners in 2022 and last year.
jhno@sportschosun.com
