The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels played a three-game series at Yankee Stadium this week, with New York coming away victorious in two of the three games.
It was a series featuring three of the best baseball players in the world: Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, and Mike Trout.
All three players have won American League Most Valuable Player awards, with Judge edging out Ohtani in an epic 2022 race. Ohtani won the AL MVP in 2021, and Trout took the hardware home in 2014, 2016, and 2019.
Well, Jon Heyman of the New York Post asked Judge how the three superstars should be ranked.
Judge told Heyman, “I’ve got Trout and Ohtani above me. Ohtani is doing both pitching and hitting, and Mike Trout wins an MVP every other year. I’ve got some work to do.”
That’s a classy answer from Judge, who hit a two-run homer and robbed Ohtani of a homer in the Yankees’ 3-2 win on Wednesday.
Aaron Judge robs Shohei Ohtani of a homer! ⚾️🔥 pic.twitter.com/D8J0EyEQRh
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) April 19, 2023
After robbing Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge crushes a homer! ⚾️💣 pic.twitter.com/g4tRY8eXsS
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) April 19, 2023
In 2022, Judge crushed an incredible 62 homers and had a 1.111 OPS. He was valued at 11.5 wins above replacement (WAR) by FanGraphs. It took a historic season like that to top the two-way production of Ohtani, who was worth 5.6 WAR as a pitcher and 3.8 WAR as a hitter according to FanGraphs.
So far in the 2023 season, Judge has six homers and a .958 OPS, Ohtani has been worth an MLB-best 1.7 WAR per Baseball Reference, and Trout has a .949 OPS.
It’s shaping up to be another brilliant season for all three former AL MVP winners.
