New York Yankees Captain Aaron Judge Falls Behind Shohei Ohtani in 2023 AL MVP Odds Despite His Historic 2022 Season

With 62 home runs, a $230 million worth bet, and a broken American League record of 61 years ago, Aaron Judge carried the New York Yankees to the ALCS. Despite their eventual humiliating loss to the Astros, there was never any question about Judge leading the race of the American League MVP race. However, on the other hand, running up to him was a two-way wonder Shohei Ohtani, who smashed 34 homers at 0.273, with 219 strikeouts in 28 games started at 2.33.

The MVP throne, which was held by Shohei Ohtani in 2021, was now handed over to the future Pinstripes leader, Aaron Judge, after a career-defining season. But now, with Shotime approaching free agency, and Judge having to prove his $360 million worth, who will emerge victorious in 2023?

Seemingly, Shohei Ohtani stands a better chance to clinch the AL MVP in 2023

John Ewing from BetMGM strongly believes in the Japanese wonder boy’s chances over Aaron Judge. And significantly over any other player in the league. According to his tweet titled “Odds to win AL MVP,” he mentioned Ohtani at the top of the list, with Judge, Mike Trout, Julio Rodriguez, Yordan Alvarez, etc. following.

According to the odds, Ohtani stood at +200, while Judge was at +500. Evidently, per Ewing, there should be a clear winner this season.

For Sho, he has every reason to come back strong after the 2022 snub, which evidently hurt him a lot, as stated by Phil Nevin. Nevid said, “I know he’s determined to have an even better year from last year. He wasn’t happy about not winning the MVP, I can tell you that.”

Ohtani too didn’t feel too good about missing out and opened up about his changed mindset post-Judge receiving the award. He said, “Me, personally, I feel like I have a lot more room to grow.”