Aaron Judge has won the Baseball Digest/Inside Edge major league player of the year award, beating out Shohei Ohtani in a very close vote.

Consider two points of reference. The first is the 2023 World Baseball Classic, the closest thing Ohtani has experienced to the postseason. In 33 plate appearances, Ohtani batted .435 with a 1.345 OPS. He also produced a 1.86 ERA in 9 2/3 innings, concluding the tournament in dramatic fashion by striking out Mike Trout.

Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season

The 30-year-old is a baseball great in the making and hugely popular both in Japan and the US but it was Masanori Murakami who paved the way.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge starred in the 2024 MLB regular season, but who performed better?

The MVP races, interesting a few weeks back, eventually were clinched by the game’s two best players. Aaron Judge will get his second MVP award and Shohei Ohtani his third, this time without even throwing a pitch.