{"id":11259,"date":"2024-11-22T11:47:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T11:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=11259"},"modified":"2024-11-22T11:47:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T11:47:48","slug":"aaron-judge-wins-mvp-as-new-york-yankees-start-figuing-out-how-to-retain-juan-soto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=11259","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Judge Wins MVP As New York Yankees Start Figuing Out How To Retain Juan Soto"},"content":{"rendered":"
New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge rounds the bases after a two-run home run against the Los Angeles … [+]<\/span> Dodgers during the first inning in Game 5 of the baseball World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo\/Ashley Landis)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The season ended officially shortly before midnight on Oct. 30 when Alex Verdugo was easily struck out by Walker Buehler and in the immediate aftermath the season was deemed a failure for the New York Yankees because they fell three wins short of winning their first World Series since 2009.<\/p>\n

The sting still remains but this week brought a reminder in the context of reaching the World Series the season was a success and also brought pleasant memories of notable performances during the 94-win regular season.<\/p>\n

And perhaps nobody signified it like Aaron Judge, who was unanimously named the AL MVP Thursday, winning the award for the second time in three seasons and doing so after a massive power display.<\/p>\n

Judge won the award after hitting 62 homers to break the AL record set by Roger Maris. Symbolically he broke the mark 61 years after Maris connected into the lower right field seats off Boston\u2019s Tracy Stallard to finish with seven more than Babe Ruth in 1927.<\/p>\n

While Ruth\u2019s and Maris set those records in championship seasons, Judge MVP seasons occurred when the Yankees fell short and Judge did not his consistently well in the postseason, especially in 2022.<\/p>\n

Judge\u2019s second MVP season saw him finish with 58, though for a while he was on pace to break his own record. He reached 50 on Aug. 24 and then hit his 51st in the same game but any chance at surpassing 62 was done in by a career-worst 16-game homerless drought.<\/p>\n

Still even with falling slightly short of his own record, Judge\u2019s overall numbers eclipsed his 2022 season.<\/p>\n

Judge was a .322 hitter and supplemented his best career average with a .458 on base percentage, .701 slugging percentage, a 1.159 OPS and was well above the league average with a 223 OPS+ (100 is league average). He also set a career with 133 walks while getting the Barry Bonds treatment on occasion late in the season and his 144 RBIs were 13 more than 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to [two-time MVP Bryce] Harper a lot this season and telling him, \u2018Man, I\u2019m going to try to catch up to you in these MVPs here,\u2019\u201d Judge joked on his interview with MLB network. \u201cIt means a lot [to win another]. Just a lot of hard work in the offseason, during the season, the ups and downs throughout it. Just the constant support from my teammates, the fans in New York, just everybody to help me get to this spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among \u201ceverybody\u201d was Juan Soto, whom he often watched take at-bats from the on-deck circle as the Yankees\u2019 regular second and third place hitters combined for 99 homers.<\/p>\n

New York Yankees’ Juan Soto celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Cleveland … [+]<\/span> Guardians during the 10th inning in Game 5 of the baseball AL Championship Series Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, in Cleveland. The Yankees won 5-2 to advance to the World Series. (AP Photo\/Sue Ogrocki)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSeeing the pitches,\u201d he said. \u201cWe all know this guy\u2019s gonna be on base 50 percent of the time, if not more. But just the quality of every single at-bat. It didn\u2019t matter if he went up there and flew out or struck out. If you\u2019re going to strike out Juan Soto, it\u2019s going to take 10-12 pitches to get it by him. It\u2019s impressive. I get to see how the pitcher\u2019s feeling today, what pitches are working, is he going to the two-seamer now, is he trying to go to his wipeout slider now. So it just gave me a better picture of what to expect stepping into the box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge\u2019s MVP and Luis Gil winning Rookie of the Year on Monday officially closed the door on a 2024 season that had plenty of good stretches but not enough in the World Series, especially in the fifth inning of Game 5 which the Dodgers enjoyed talking about knowing the Yankees might struggle if a ball gets put in play.<\/p>\n

Now the focus can fully shift to making sure Soto continues to see pitches ahead of Judge. Soto is up to the taking a meeting phase of one of baseball\u2019s biggest free agent sagas that is perhaps is seeing more details than the pursuit of Shohei Ohtani, who went from allegedly signing with the Toronto Blue Jays to actually joining the Dodgers on a massively deferred deal.<\/p>\n

The team, we needed somebody to play center, and I felt it was best for the team,\u201d Judge said. \u201cSo I said, \u2018I\u2019ll play center field, as long as you guys need me out there. I\u2019ll play left, I\u2019ll play right. Whatever gives us the best lineup.\u2019 Especially when you go out and get a guy like Juan Soto, the most important thing is making sure he\u2019s comfortable. And when he\u2019s comfortable, you can see what he does and what he did this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yankees are hoping Judge is able to mention Soto as a teammate next season and managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner was part of the contingent meeting with the theatrical slugger in California with agent Scott Boras<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fans really enjoyed having him in New York,\u201d Steinbrenner told reporters after the owner\u2019s meetings in Manhattan on Wednesday. \u201cHe\u2019s definitely a significant part of why we got to the World Series. I\u2019ve got ears. I know what\u2019s expected of me. It\u2019s been a priority. Wouldn\u2019t have gone out to the West Coast if it wasn\u2019t.”<\/p>\n

In a few weeks, the Yankees will present the dollar figures and hope it is enough to retain a generational left-handed slugger. In the meantime, they will appreciate his entire of body of work and what the pairing with Judge looked like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aaron judge won the AL MVP Thursday in a week when the Yankees are meeting with free agent slugger Juan Soto in an effort to retain him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[369,440,44,436,53],"class_list":["post-11259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-free-agency","tag-hal-steinbrenner","tag-mlb","tag-mvp","tag-shohei-ohtani"],"yoast_head":"\nAaron Judge Wins MVP As New York Yankees Start Figuing Out How To Retain Juan Soto - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=11259\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aaron Judge Wins MVP As New York Yankees Start Figuing Out How To Retain Juan Soto - 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