When the 2024 season was presented MLBand names like Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge They were candidates to be the best of the contest, but are they as comfortable as they think?
The Japanese player can win his MVP award in the National League, just as he did in the American League with the Los Angeles Angels. However, this season could be even better, because the Triple Crown is on the radar.
Ohtani leads most in multiple offensive departments: batting average, hits, home runs, OBP, OPS, OPS+, slugging and stolen bases. Dominican Marcell Ozuna He only leads in RBIs and that makes him a possible candidate to compete with the Japanese star.
Even though Ozuna has a great offensive campaign with the Atlanta Braves, everything seems to indicate that Ohtani will continue on his projected path and take home the award at the end of the season.
Judge with authority
There is something similar to Ohtani in the American League. The 2022 MVP winner has the credentials to repeat his honors and since the beginning of the campaign, Aaron Judge was already a candidate to win it.
Judge is the home run leader in the entire Major Leagues. His 41 home runs make him the most dangerous hitter of the moment, so much so that rivals no longer want to face him. At the beginning of the week, the captain of the New York Yankees hit a home run against the Toronto Blue Jays and from the third inning (with no outs or runners on base that warranted a danger), they decided to give him an intentional walk, which made him the first hitter of the year to receive that “gift.”
The closest contender for the Bronx Bomber is Kansas City Royals star player, Bobby Witt Jr.
According to Baseball Reference, Bobby Witt Jr. has a cumulative WAR of 6.7, trailing only Aaron Judge at 7.4. This is the highest WAR since Lorenzo Cain finished the 2015 season at 7.0, nine seasons ago for a player in the Kansas City organization.
Witt Jr. has played in every game for the Kansas City Royals this season and was only out of the lineup in 2023 for four games.
He could be the batting champion and achieve a 30-30 campaign for the second consecutive year.
Obviously Judge is on track to finish with 50 or more home runs and surpass 100 RBIs, but Witt Jr. will do everything to continue his explosiveness.
