The Baseball Writers’ Association of America has released the finalists in this year’s awards voting, and in the least surprising news of the offseason, Aaron Judge has been named an AL MVP finalist for the second time in his career. Having clubbed a record-breaking 62 home runs and sitting comfortably as MLB’s leader in WAR, Judge is the prohibitive favorite in a race that features two other deserving candidates were it any other year. He is opposed by Shohei Ohtani — the defending AL MVP — and World Series winner Yordan Alvarez.
While MVP is not entirely a WAR award, racking up over two wins more than second-place finisher and co-finalist Ohtani positions Judge nicely to win his first MVP and deny the Angels’ superstar a chance to defend his crown.