The battle for ultimate superstardom between Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani is, for all intents and purposes, valid, as much as it hurts me to say that as a Yankees fan. Both stars for the Yankees and Angels, respectively, are having unbelievable seasons in their own ways. The aggregate skill that Shohei has shown in hitting and pitching in 2022 makes this year one of the most special seasons we’ve seen as baseball fans in the 21st century. Judge, meanwhile, is first in all sorts of hitting metrics, including the AL Triple Crown categories (as of 9/24), and is on his way to passing the single-season American League home run record of 61 longballs. But what I find the most intriguing about the MVP race between these two future legends is their polarizing comparisons to arguably the greatest baseball player that’s ever lived: Babe Ruth.
Ruth was a blessing for the sport of baseball at the turn of both post-WW1 America and the Live Ball Era, turning Major League Baseball into the juggernaut professional sports league that it still is today (I mean, it’s the oldest, no matter how you slice it). His moon-shape face and same-sized personality captivated new fans that were searching for the American Dream in a little place called New York City, where they came across the son of European immigrants who grew up in an orphanage that could hit home runs like there was no tomorrow. The Babe is synonymous with baseball, as he’s more likely than not the one baseball player that non-baseball fans can name (Michael Jordan for basketball, Tom Brady for football, and Wayne Gretzky for hockey, if I were to give one example each for the other three major American sports). He personifies Americana like only Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, and Heelys could (I really hope you know that’s a joke), which is precisely why it can be hard to wrap your head around the idea that any player could be compared to the Babe, let alone two players in the same season. The similarities between George Herman Ruth and Aaron Judge/Shohei Ohtani are there, but there are differences to keep in mind that will help contextualize the 2022 season of the AL MVP frontrunners, for better and for worse.
Let’s start with Shohei because the comparison between him and the Babe is the most “chronological,” I guess. What I mean by that is that Babe Ruth started off as a pitcher, only switching to the batter’s box when his Red Sox were short on batters due to military conscription. Somehow, he wasn’t brought into the Majors as a hitter to start, yet he wasn’t that bad of a pitcher. In fact, the Babe used to hold the record for the most consecutive scoreless innings pitched in World Series play. So when he made the switch to be a part-time pitcher and hitter, it was marvelous to see the numbers he was putting up. He only split time between the sides of the ball in 1918 and 1919, but in those years, he went 22-12 with a 2.55 ERA, along with a whopping 1.052 two-year OPS (on-base plus slugging). Once he joined the Yankees in 1920, however, he became their full-time right fielder.
Shohei Ohtani, on the other hand, was advertised as the next Babe Ruth coming out of Japan because he was a two-for-one deal. The Angels got an awesome starter (but need an extra man in the rotation) and an even better hitter, all for the price of one player (until they have to pay him like he’s two players at the end of 2023). This season, Shotime has an OPS+ of 149 and an ERA+ of 163. He also just got to 200 pitcher strikeouts and has a chance to eclipse 100 RBIs by season’s end. The fact that I’m typing this out right now should not be possible. You can make a strong argument that, because Ruth only pitched and hit for two seasons, that Shohei is more Babe Ruth than Babe Ruth! I think it’s so hard to comprehend Ohtani’s greatness because it’s never been done before, so now that I look at his stats, all the props in the world belong to the Japanese phenom.
But what’s funny, at least to me, is that when Shohei Ohtani was getting those Babe Ruth comparisons before he got signed in 2018, it’s not that I didn’t think they were justified, but instead, I thought to myself, “What about the crazy amount of game-defining home runs that Ruth hit?” That’s where Aaron Judge’s 2022 season comes into focus. If you don’t count the steroid-users, Babe Ruth’s single-season home run clip of 60 set in 1927 has only been topped once (yeah, yeah, yeah, Maris, I know you know). The idea of a home run chase is so captivating to watch, as Judge’s chase to become the single-season AL home run king reaches its apex in the final weeks of the season. Not only does Judge’s 2022 look like many of Ruth’s seasons by demolishing the rest of the league in the dinger category, but much like Ruth did year after year, Judge is also leading in almost every other hitting category (and he has the chance to steal 20 bases), not to mention posting an OPS this year over 1.100 and an OPS+ over 200!
Judge is my MVP in 2022. Breaking the single-season home run record is way too momentous not to recognize in a superlative fashion. That doesn’t mean that Shohei won’t make the All-MLB team at DH, but I want to add an interesting take to this hotly contested MVP race that will hopefully add some nuance to it. The “Shohei Ohtani Rule” was added to the MLB rulebook in the last couple of years, a rule that allows a starting pitcher to remain in games as a designated hitter after leaving the mound, which encourages dual-threat baseball players to remain dual-threats from Little League to professional baseball. So, logistically speaking, we’ll probably see more pitcher-hitters in the future, which still makes Shohei a pioneer in the category, but his otherworldliness is certainly being threatened by this new rule. Meanwhile, it took Roger Maris 34 years to break the Babe’s home run mark and it’ll take Aaron Judge 61 years to break the current record. If you haven’t watched Judge all year, then it’ll feel like I’m just being biased, but it’s been absolutely insane to watch this chase live.
Still, though, the fact that we have to whittle down the accomplishments of these two players into a fight over three letters and a trophy is demeaning to the reputations that they have, are, and will continue to build for a long time. Who ever thought that Babe Ruth, the most sacred name on the diamond, would need to defend his title of Ruth-ness against two people? This season has just been such a whirlwind and I can’t wait to look back on it in a few decades and say, “Wow. I can’t believe I watched all of that unfold.”
Comments