CC Sabathia shared a dugout with Aaron Judge for more than three seasons, and Judge is now having a better year than any one when Sabathia was still a Yankee.
But Sabathia would still give the American League MVP award to Shohei Ohtani this year.
“Judge is like my little brother,” Sabathia said on MLB Network, before explaining his case for Ohtani to win the award for the second straight year.
“He’s the best baseball player to ever play baseball. He’s the MVP. Every year he’s healthy and continues to get better as a pitcher, you gotta give him the MVP.”
Judge has the edge in the WAR department, but Ohtani’s standing as an unprecedented two-way star is enough for Sabathia to claim that as long as Ohtani is performing at this level at the plate and on the mound, it will always be hard to make the case for anyone else to be the MVP.
“I understand everything that Judge is doing,” Sabathia said. “It’s gonna be incredible watching him chase down 61 in a Yankee uniform, and if it wasn’t for him, they would probably not be in the playoff picture. But this guy is literally the best player we’ve ever seen.”