This one wasn’t unanimous, but it was still a repeat: Aaron Judge is your 2025 American League MVP, winning his second straight award in the closest AL MVP race since 2019.
Judge, who received all 30 first-place votes last year, got 17 this year to best Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh, who took home the other 13. The two men flip-flopped second place votes (Raleigh 17, Judge 13), giving the Yankees’ slugger a 20-point victory over the “Big Dumper.”
Raleigh had a record-setting campaign, hitting an MLB-high 60 home runs – a record for a switch-hitter – and leading the AL with 125 RBI, but Judge’s MLB-high .331 average was 84 points ahead of Raleigh’s .246, and the Yankees slugger also led MLB in OBP, slugging, OPS, and total bases, while also leading the AL in walks and runs scored.
And so, Judge becomes the 13th player to win three or more MVP Awards and this is the 20th time a player has gone back-to-back – both totals including 2025 NL MVP Shohei Ohtani, who has won three straight years across both leagues.
This is also the 23rd time a Yankee has been named AL MVP, his third matching Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, and Mickey Mantle for the most in franchise history.
Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez was the third finalist, earning 19 of the 30 third-place votes. Bobby Witt Jr., who was the runner-up to Judge in 2024, finished fourth and was the only other player besides the three finalists to be named on all 30 ballots.
Cody Bellinger was the only Yankee to get any down-ballot votes, getting three total (one seventh, one ninth, and one tenth).