{"id":90197,"date":"2024-11-21T20:40:09","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T01:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=90197"},"modified":"2024-11-21T20:40:54","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T01:40:54","slug":"shohei-ohtani-aaron-judge-2024-mvps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/21\/shohei-ohtani-aaron-judge-2024-mvps\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge and Ohtani are the Cream of the Crop as They Win Unanimous MVPs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2024 season had impressive offensive milestones. Some of these feats may never be duplicated in the history of baseball. No one embodies greatness at the plate more than the New York Yankees&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/judgeaa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Judge<\/a> and Los Angeles Dodgers&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/ohtansh01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, and as a result, both were unanimous choices for the MVP awards of their respective leagues. Both had historic offensive seasons, each <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/02\/shohei-ohtani-aaron-judge-triple-crown-mlb\/\" target=\"_self\">falling just short<\/a> of Triple Crown honors.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Prior to 2024, no MLB player had ever had a season with:<\/p>\n<p>50+ HR<br \/>\n90+ XBH<br \/>\nWorld Series appearance<br \/>\nunanimous MVP award<\/p>\n<p>Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani both did it this year. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fd3jzoCVQp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/fd3jzoCVQp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OptaSTATS\/status\/1859754132892189165?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 22, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani Win League MVPs Unanimously<\/h2>\n<h3>The Second Time for 99<\/h3>\n<p>Aaron Judge is the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/14\/aaron-judges-dominance-al-mvp\/\" target=\"_self\">unanimous choice<\/a> for American League Most Valuable Player, which was arguably his best in an already illustrious career. He had a major league-high 58 home runs. Judge also led the league in runs batted in, walks, slugging percentage, go-ahead RBI, and game-winning RBI. He also led the American League in extra-base hits and total bases.<\/p>\n<h3>Here Comes the Judge<\/h3>\n<p>The now two-time MVP did not just have a great season. He had one of the greatest seasons by a right-handed hitter ever. Judge has placed himself among Yankee greats <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/dimagjo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe DiMaggio<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gehrilo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lou Gehrig<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/marisro01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roger Maris<\/a>. He joins <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mantlmi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mickey Mantle<\/a> (1956) as the only Yankees to be unanimous MVPs.<\/p>\n<h3>A (Offensive) Season for the Ages<\/h3>\n<p>Shohei Ohtani is the only player in major league history to hit <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/09\/19\/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-first-ever-50-50-season\/\" target=\"_self\">50 home runs and steal 50 bases<\/a>. His 54 home runs and 13o runs batted in were also first in the National League. He finished second in batting average, narrowly missing the Triple Crown. Ohtani is also the second player in baseball history to win the MVP Awards in both leagues, joining <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/robinfr02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Frank Robinson<\/a> (1961 Reds, 1966, Orioles).<\/p>\n<p>He is the first Dodger to be a unanimous MVP in franchise history and the seventh Dodger to win honors since they moved to Los Angeles in 1958. Their most recent winner had been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bellico01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cody Bellinger<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n<h3>The Baseball Unicorn<\/h3>\n<p>Along with his unique 50-50 season, Ohtani is the first designated hitter to win the award and the first player to win unanimously in back-to-back seasons. He also won for the Los Angeles Angels in 2021 and 2023. He also joins 10 other players who have won three times.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The only question left for Judge and Ohtani is when their statues will be placed in Cooperstown.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2024 season had impressive offensive milestones. Some of these feats may never be duplicated in the history of baseball. No one embodies greatness at the plate more than the New York Yankees&#8217; Aaron Judge and Los Angeles Dodgers&#8217; Shohei Ohtani, and as a result, both were unanimous choices for the MVP awards of their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":90204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,33,5,35],"tags":[501,899,3482,1676,2178],"class_list":["post-90197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-dodgers","category-yankees","category-news","tag-aaron-judge","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-frank-robinson","tag-mickey-mantle","tag-shohei-ohtani"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}