Yankees’ Judge and Mets’ Showalter Finalists for League Honors
The finalists for Major League Baseball’s awards were revealed on Monday, and Yankees slugger Aaron Judge and Mets manger Buck Showalter are among the finalists.
Judge, who was voted the Player of the Year and the American League Outstanding Player by his peers at the Major League Baseball Players Association’ annual Players Choice Awards, is now a finalist for AL MVP.
No shock there.
Judge is going up against LA Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani and Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez. It’s still competition for sure for the award.
As we all know, Judge had a historic season in 2022, crushing an American League record, and Yankees club-record 62 home runs. He posted career bests in average (.311), on base percentage (.425), slugging (.686) and OPS (1.111).
Ohtani, last year’s AL MVP, continued to dominate the sport both at the plate and on the mound on a bad Angels team. This season, Ohtani hit .273 with 34 homers, 95 RBIs, 90 runs and 11 stolen bases. Meanwhile, he got even better on the mound, going 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA and 219 strikeouts.
Aaron Judge has officially been named an American League MVP Award finalist for the second time in his career pic.twitter.com/9ntAVgB2EE
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) November 8, 2022
Alvarez, of course is going to get some votes because of his World Series winning home run for the Houston Astros on Saturday, but AL MVP is a regular season award. Still it was an amazing year for Alvarez, who hit .306 with a .406 on-base percentage and a .613 slugging percentage, ranking second in all three categories. He hammered 37 homers, drove in 97 runs and scored 95. He’s expected to finish third behind both Judge and Ohtani.
Meanwhile, Mets manager Buck Showalter is one of three finalists for the NL Manager of the Year award. He is going up against Atlanta’s Brian Snitker and LA Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts. Both Roberts and Snitker won the award in recent years (Roberts in 2016 and Snitker in 2018). Both have also won World Series titles in recent years. However, Showalter should be considered favorite. After returning to the dugout following a four year absence, Showalter guided the Mets to 101 wins, and for most of the year, the Mets were considered one of the best teams in Major League Baseball. His steady presence helped revitalize the franchise, and set it up for future success.
Should Showalter win the award, it would be his fourth award, having won it with the Yankees (1994), Texas Rangers (2004) and Baltimore Orioles (2014).
Buck Showalter has been named a finalist for NL Manager of the Year! 👏 pic.twitter.com/mVm4O41ASJ
— New York Mets (@Mets) November 7, 2022