Shohei Ohtani vs Aaron Judge: Who would win if the MLB had only one MVP award for the season?

Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees had spectacular 2024 seasons.

For the regular season, Ohtani batted .310, with 54 home runs and 130 RBIs, while becoming the 'founding member' of the 50-50 club. On the other hand, Judge had a .322 batting average, with 58 home runs and 144 RBIs.

Quite deservedly, both players were chosen as the NL and AL MVP award winners respectively.

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced Shohei Ohtani's unanimous win on Thursday via a post on X - formerly Twitter.

The New York Yankees also followed suit, taking to X - formerly Twitter - after their captain won the AL version of the award.

Naturally, this poses the question: Who would have come out on top if there had been a joint MVP award for the major leagues? To answer that question, we must look at a few key stats.

Many consider OPS a better metric than batting average to measure a player's performance. Aaron Judge finished the season with a 1.159 OPS, compared to Shohei Ohtani's 1.036, a difference of 0.123.

Another important stat to consider when comparing the two is WRC+. Weighted runs created+ is a metric that helps even the playing field as much as possible when comparing two hitters, adjusting for ballpark variations and the opposition pitcher's ERA.

In terms of WRC+, Aaron Judge also leads Shohei Ohtani. The Yankees captain finished the regular season with a 219 WRC+, compared to the Japanese International's 181.

Finally, we assess the WAR of the two players. Wins above average is a stat that compares an individual player's value to his team compared to a replacement-level player. Judge has a 10.8 WAR, while Ohtani finished the season with 9.2.

Though Ohtani is by far the better base-runner, the bonus he provides to his side is arguably not enough to compensate for the above stats' gap. In addition, Aaron Judge played defense all season long in 2024, while Shohei Ohtani played as a DH. Of course, had Ohtani been able to pitch as well, that would add a whole different dimension of 'value' for his team, and the discussion would have been very different.

Going strictly off the stats for the recently concluded regular season, though, Aaron Judge would be the favorite to take home a joint MLB MVP award for the 2024 season.

---

Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge in good shape to continue winning MVP awards for the foreseeable future

In the time he spent with the Los Angeles Angels, Shohei Ohtani went toe-to-toe with Aaron Judge every season and fought for the AL MVP title season-in-season-out. By the time Ohtani went to the NL with the Dodgers, each player had won the honor twice.

Now, as the pair play in separate leagues, it is perhaps safe to assume that the two juggernauts may enjoy a monopoly on the MVP award for the next few seasons.