Penton: Judge, Ohtani should be automatic MVPs
By Bruce Penton
Despite average or sub-par performances in the World Series, Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees are almost guaranteed this week to be announced as their leagues’ respective Most Valuable Players.
Voting for all baseball awards takes place immediately following the end of the regular season, so performance in the post-season is not a factor. For Judge, that was important, because the Yankees’ centerfielder had a horrendous post-season at the plate and then made one of the most important errors in the decisive World Series game that led to a Dodgers’ win and the Series’ title in five games.
Over the 162-game regular season, though, Judge was awesome. He produced a Wins Above Replacement (WAR) figure of 10.8, the only major leaguer in double figures. (WAR is a relatively new stat, measuring a player's value to a team by comparing their performance to that of a replacement-level player). Judge belted 58 homers, drove in a league-best 144, walked a league-high 133 times and produced an OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging) of 1.159, the best of his career.
Judge will be a unanimous winner, giving him his second MVP award (2022 was his first) and the Yankees might have given the Dodgers a better fight in the World Series had the nine-year veteran hit in the World Series at a similar pace. Post-season pitchers had his number, though. Some of his ugly October numbers were: three home runs in 14 games, a batting average of .184 and an OPS of .762.
Ohtani, meanwhile, is almost guaranteed to win the MVP award in the National League, his second straight, after he won the American League crown last year with Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani is the rarest of the rare: One of the best, if not THE best, hitters in baseball and, when healthy, one of the best, if not THE best, pitchers in the game. He signed a free-agent contract with the Dodgers last winter that will ultimately pay him $700 million. (He’s reportedly taking home $2 million a season with the Dodgers and will receive $68 million per year for 10 years after he retires and has returned to his native Japan.)
In 2024, Ohtani’s play was restricted to hitting, as off-season elbow surgery took him off the mound. All he did as the full-time designated hitter was smash 54 home run, drive in 130, hit for an average of .310 and produce an NL-best WAR of 9.2. He also stole 59 bases, making him the first major leaguer in history to have at least 50 homers and 50 steals in the same season. Hs value to the Dodgers is almost immeasurable and when he returns to the mound in 2025 and starts pitching like a Cy Young candidate, that $700 million contract will look like the Dodgers got a great deal.
Baseball fans should enjoy this era of baseball, featuring two of the greatest to ever play the game.
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Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “What I always say: Doctors bury their mistakes; sports columnists print theirs!”
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Comedy guy Torben Rolfsen of Vancouver, on Canada’s difficulty in choosing a goalie for the 4Nations Cup in February: “Maybe Canada should go 6-on-5 for the whole tournament. Who would you rather have on the ice — Jordan Binnington or Nathan McKinnon?”
RJ Currie again: “A brawl broke out in a professional rugby game in the country of Georgia, complete with punching, kicking and bloodshed. Then things got really violent — they played rugby.”
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Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca