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As Los Angeles Dodgers SP/DH Shohei Ohtani continues to make history, winning his third straight MVP and fourth overall in his career after being named the 2025 NL MVP on Thursday night, New York Yankees Aaron Judge made history of his own with his second straight AL MVP win.
For the first time in over a decade, a player has won consecutive MVP awards in the American League. Judge could’ve been on a longer MVP streak, though. And it’s because of the bane of the Yankees’ existence in recent years that he wasn’t.
As The New York Post’s Dan Martin points out, an incident at Dodger Stadium in June 2023, where Judge injured his toe running into the fence, prevented him from being on a four-year run of winning the award. Judge missed 42 games during that campaign, many as a result of that injury.
“The only thing that’s really slowed Judge down — and perhaps prevented him from winning four straight MVPs — was the toe injury that occurred when he ran into the fence at Dodger Stadium in June 2023,” Martin wrote.
Yankees OF Aaron Judge reacts to AL MVP win
Per NorthJersey.com’s Pete Caldera, Judge received 17 first-place votes for a total of 355 points, while Raleigh finished just behind, with 13 first-place votes for a total of 335 points, and Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Guardians finished third overall with 224 points.
Judge congratulated Raleigh and Ramirez for their brilliant efforts while accepting the award on Thursday night.
“First off, congrats to Cal Raleigh and Jose Ramirez, they had two incredible seasons,” Judge said on MLB Network following the announcement. “It's pretty wild, you try not to think about it during the season. You do what you can, give it your all, and you wake up the next day and do it again.”
Judge enters the 2026 season as the betting favorite to win another AL MVP. As a three-time winner, sportsbooks expect more of the same.
Too bad he’s not a four-time winner. Somehow, someway, the Dodgers have a hand in him not being one.
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