After only one prize was available when they met in the World Series, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge both walked away winners Thursday.
Ohtani was named National League Most Valuable Player following his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, while Judge won his second American League MVP in three seasons with the New York Yankees.
For the third time in four years, Ohtani won a league MVP award by unanimous vote; last year he became the only player to do so multiple times. Judge was also the unanimous winner in the AL, the 20th player to accomplish the feat.
Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets finished second in NL voting and Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks was third. In the AL, Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. received all 30 second-place votes and Judge’s Yankee teammate Juan Soto finished third.
The honor for Ohtani caps a particularly memorable month after he helped the Dodgers to the franchise’s second championship in 36 seasons with a five-game World Series win over the Yankees.
Ohtani, 30, became just the second player to win the MVP in both leagues after Frank Robinson did it in 1961 with the NL’s Cincinnati Reds and in 1966 with the AL’s Baltimore Orioles. He also became the first MVP winner while playing as his team’s primary designated hitter.
A shoulder injury prevented Ohtani from pitching this past season, but as a two-way player for the Los Angeles Angels, he won unanimous AL MVPs in both 2021 and 2023.
In 159 games during the 2024 regular season, Ohtani batted .310 and led the NL in OPS (1.036), slugging percentage (.646), home runs (54) and RBIs (130). He became the first player to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases, taking 59. He narrowly missed out on the league’s triple crown, finishing second for the NL batting title to the San Diego Padres’ Luis Arraez (.314).
In the first postseason of his career, Ohtani batted .230 with a .767 OPS, with three home runs and 10 RBIs. He injured his shoulder in Game 2 of the World Series yet continued to play and batted just .105 with no RBIs in five games. Ohtani had shoulder surgery after the World Series ended and is expected to be ready to play by the start of spring training.
Judge, 32, led the Yankees to the World Series after batting .322 with a 1.159 OPS in 158 games this past regular season. He also had an MLB-best 58 home runs with 144 RBIs. His home-run total did not match the 62 he hit while winning the AL MVP in 2022, but his OPS was better than his 1.111 mark from that season.
Judge did not win the MVP in 2023 after a toe injury cost him more than a month.
In 14 postseason games in October, Judge batted just .184 with a .752 OPS, including three home runs and nine RBIs. In five World Series games, he batted .222 with a lone home run that came early in Game 5 before the Dodgers rallied to win the title.
During the 2024 regular season, Judge set career highs in batting average, on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.701). OPS, hits (180), doubles (36), RBIs and walks (133). He was named to the AL All-Star team for the sixth time.
While Ohtani was playing the first season of a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers, Judge was in the second season of a nine-year, $360 million contract with the Yankees.
