00:00All rise times three, Aaron Judge has won his third AL MVP award, and that's actually back-to-back MVPs for Judge.
00:07So let's talk about his legacy with our New York Post Yankees beat writer, Dan Martin.
00:13Dan, thanks for hopping on with us.
00:14A lot of happy Yankees fans around the Bronx and all five boroughs.
00:1917 first-place votes to Cal Raleigh's 13.
00:23He finished with 355 to 335 in total points.
00:28There's a lot of people out there that feel like Raleigh was snubbed.
00:31So what do you think made voters go with Judge in the end?
00:36Well, Brandon, it was just the numbers and the all-around game that Judge provides.
00:42Raleigh had an unbelievable year with the home runs.
00:45A lot of people value his catching because that is a tough thing to do.
00:48He caught a lot of games this year, and to be able to produce like he did, that's why it was such a close vote.
00:53But when you look at what Judge did in terms of leading the league and batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, everything really except home runs, and who knows?
01:05He might have challenged Raleigh there, too, had he not hurt his elbow in the middle of the year.
01:09So you just look at everything that Judge brings.
01:12He's the most feared hitter, certainly in the American League.
01:15You know, obviously, Otani, when he's hot, he's almost as good.
01:19But, you know, just everything that Judge does, he goes through these stretches where no one can get him out.
01:27And, you know, opposing teams treated him as such for times there where he just kept getting intentionally walked.
01:33But Raleigh is a force, but he's not as good at getting on base as Judge.
01:40And, look, Judge just, you know, he rises to the moment.
01:44He's a Yankee, so people watch him play more often.
01:48Raleigh is a little bit lost in the shuffle there in Seattle.
01:51But he did great things.
01:52You know, he helped the Mariners get to their first division title since 2001, the ALCS for the first time since 2001.
02:00So he did some great things.
02:02But, you know, I think most people expect the Judge to win.
02:05Some people were certainly surprised that it was as close as it was.
02:08But you never know how these voters are going to, you know, where they're from or what games they've watched.
02:13So I did expect kind of a close vote.
02:15I wasn't convinced the Judge would win.
02:16I thought he should win.
02:18And, obviously, that's the way it turned out.
02:20And he's, you know, won three out of the last four years.
02:23The only year he didn't win was because of that toe injury.
02:26Who knows?
02:26He might have won four in a row.
02:27So he's really on an incredible run right now.
02:30He's the captain and the backbone of this team, this franchise.
02:33So were you kind of surprised that he was able to do it without Juan Soto?
02:38And does that make this MVP award mean a little bit more to him?
02:44You know, I don't know if it means more to him.
02:46But certainly it's another feather in his cap.
02:49You know, to not have that protection of, you know, Juan Soto, who's just as feared a hitter as Judge.
02:58You know, Cody Bellinger did a great job, but he's no Juan Soto.
03:02He's no Aaron Judge.
03:03So there are times when it felt like Judge was carrying the offense.
03:06So I think from an outsider's perspective, it is a more impressive feat that he was able to do it without a lot of protection, that he was able to do it despite playing with an elbow that was not 100% for the whole second half of the year.
03:21And, you know, he, Judge, insisted it didn't affect him at the plate.
03:25You know, the numbers would indicate otherwise, certainly right after he suffered that injury.
03:30So to be able to do all that, you know, to come back and play right field, even if it wasn't at his best in the second half of the year, that was impressive.
03:38So, yeah, I mean, you put it all together and, you know, it's hard to compare all of his years.
03:4322, he had the 62 home runs last year in 24, was probably his best all-around season.
03:49He might have even topped that this year, this past year, if he hadn't gotten hurt.
03:53And so, you know, there's no reason to think that, you know, he's going to slow down at any point.
03:57So, you know, it'll be interesting to see who is hitting in front or behind him next year, but it almost doesn't matter at this point.
04:03He's got a lot of baseball left in him, but does winning a third MVP make him a sure thing to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer?
04:12Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt about that.
04:14I don't even know if he needed the MVP this year, just what he's been able to do for the past five years.
04:21One of the biggest stars in the game.
04:24You know, for him to cement his legacy as one of the greatest Yankees of all time, he probably does need a world championship.
04:33But to get into the Hall of Fame, a first ballot, I think that's a slam dunk at this point.
04:39And, you know, Don Mattingly was around a lot this postseason with the Blue Jays.
04:43And you can see he's revered.
04:46He's a Yankee legend, and he didn't even get to a World Series.
04:49So Judge does need that to become one of the guys like Mantle, Gehrig, Ruth, all the guys that we know about, the Jeters of more recent vintage.
05:01But what he's done individually and the amount of wins that he's helped the Yankees get, he's definitely going to have his number retired, Monument Park, the whole thing.
05:11He just has that one thing that will bring him up to where everyone else is that he wants to get to.
05:18And he knows that.
05:18He talked about it last night after he won the award, that he would trade all of these MVPs and all the individual accolades for one championship.
05:27And, you know, he still has time to do it, but the clock is ticking.
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