Major League Baseball on Thursday night announced the 2022 MVP awards. St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman Paul Goldschmidt claimed the National League honors. New York Yankees outfielder, Aaron Judge was named this year’s American League MVP. This was the first MVP win for both Goldschmidt and Judge

National League – Paul Goldschmidt

Goldschmidt claimed the National League MVP title with 22 first place votes and a total of 380 points. He finished ahead of Manny Machado, who received seven first place votes and thirteen second place votes for 291 total points. Goldschmidt’s teammate, Nolan Arenado came up in third behind the St. Louis first baseman. He becomes the first Cardinal to win the award in 13 years and the announcement came via the voice of the Cardinal great Albert Pujols.

Goldschmidt is coming off of a great 2022 season in which he batted .317/.404/.578, with a .982 OPS. He finished second in the National League in RBIs with 115, third in batting average, and fifth in home runs at 35 homers. He also hit 41 doubles, had 106 runs scored, and was walked 79 times. He ranked third in fWAR and second in rWAR among NL players.

This MVP win is a special one for Goldschmidt in that he finished second in MVP voting in 2013 and 2015 and third in 2017. He also came close in 2018 and 2021, finishing sixth in those years.

Goldschmidt had already collected numerous awards this off-season. He was named a 2022 Heart and Hustle Award winner, as well as the 2022 Hank Aaron “Most Outstanding Player” award for the National League. He also won the titles of Silver Slugger this year and was the 2022 National League Outstanding Player in the 2022 players choice awards.

The Mets had five players finish with MVP votes led by Pete Alonso:

Alonso received one second place vote by St. Louis writer Rick Hummel.

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

American League – Aaron Judge

The Yankees outfielder edged out Angels’ pitcher Shohei Ohtani to claim the title of AL MVP. Judge received 28 first place votes and two second place votes while Ohtani received two first place and 28 second place votes. Judge received a total 410 points over Ohtani’s 280 points.

Judge had a historic 2022 season for the Yankees that included setting a new single-season American League and New York Yankees franchise home run record with 62 home runs (surpassing the mark previously set by the late Yankees great Roger Maris). He also led the league in runs scored, RBIs, walks, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+, and total bases. He finished the year just a few points shy of winning the AL Triple Crown, coming up just short of Minnesota’s Luis Arraez for the American League batting title.

Judge finished the season batting .311/.425/.686, with a 1.111 OPS.  Along with his 62 home runs, Judge hit 28 doubles. He drove in a league-leading 131 RBIs, scored a league-leading 133 runs, and was walked a league-leading 111 times.

Judge also had the highest WAR on FanGraphs (11.4) and Baseball Reference (10.6).

The league’s top-ranked free agent heading into the off-season has already earned end-of-season accolades in being named Sporting News MLB Player of the Year, the Players’ Choice American League Outstanding Player, Players’ Choice League Outstanding Players for 2022, and was also named a 2022 Hank Aaron Award winner for his ‘outstanding offensive’ season as well.