Jared Carrabis on the Yankees Star winning the AL MVP - "He deserved it. Without him, there’s no way the Yankees get all the way to the ALCS before promptly getting swept by the Astros"

All season, the Yankees' OF Aaron Judge was plagued by the idea of value. His long-term value to New York was estimated at $213.5 million over seven years in April. Judge assigned a value to the American League record for home runs in October. He continued to strive for it even after the Yankees secured the AL East and a first-round bye in the playoffs.

Judge shattered the record, turned down the contract offer, and on Thursday, the baseball writers formally decided on Judge's worth. With 28 of the 30 first-place votes, Judge easily won the AL Most Valuable Player Award. The other two went to Los Angeles Angels two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani, while Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez took third place.

"AARON JUDGE IS THE 2022 AL MVP" - BleacherReport

Since Alex Rodriguez won the award in 2007, Judge is the first Yankee to win the AL MVP, and he is also the first outfielder to do so since Mickey Mantle in 1962. Along with Thurman Munson, who won Rookie of the Year in 1970 and the AL MVP in 1976, Aaron Judge is the second player to win both the Rookie of the Year and MVP awards with New York. Judge is the 21st BBWAA MVP in Yankees history.

Carrying the Yankees on his back

While Judge continued to play at an almost record-breaking pace, his team's offense stuttered and sputtered, plunging the team into a month-long collapse. On August 1st, the Yankees comfortably led the AL East by 12 games. Three weeks later, they only led Tampa Bay by 4.5 games. Despite Judge's greatness, the offense, which has scored the second-fewest runs in baseball during that span, is mostly to blame.

With 12 home runs and a slash line of .317/.470/.721, Judge has continued to torment MLB pitching throughout that same span. At the time, his OPS (1.191) is more than twice as high as the team average (.577).

"He deserved it. Without him, there’s no way the Yankees get all the way to the ALCS before promptly getting swept by the Astros. Hell of a season. A pleasure to watch every step of the way. Price tag just went up. Secure the bag." - Jared_Carrabis

In an effort to keep Judge in the Bronx, Steinbrenner claimed last week that he had a face-to-face meeting with the slugger. Judge agreed with Steinbrenner that the discussions had been "pleasant," and he thought it was a "good sign" that the owner contacted him.

New York was grateful to have a player like him who could close out games and lift them out of slumps when everyone else was struggling. This propelled New York to reach the ALCS.