Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals were voted 2022 Most Valuable Players Thursday, over Box-Toppers’ choices for the awards—Shohei Ohtani of the Angels and Pete Alonso of the Mets.
Box-Toppers Most Valuable Player award ballot
Here are Box-Toppers' ballot selections for the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) 2022 Most Valuable Player awards. The ballot required voters to pick the top 10 players in each league.Players are shown with their team and their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2022.
| AL Most Valuable Player | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Shohei Ohtani | Angels | 24.7 |
| 2 | Aaron Judge | Yankees | 13.2 |
| 3 | Justin Verlander | Astros | 26.0 |
| 4 | Jose Ramirez | Guardians | 11.7 |
| 5 | Dylan Cease | White Sox | 20.4 |
| 6 | Yordan Alvarez | Astros | 8.7 |
| 7 | Alex Bregman | Astros | 8.7 |
| 8 | Shane McClanahan | Rays | 16.4 |
| 9 | George Springer | Blue Jays | 8.0 |
| 10 | Framber Valdez | Astros | 16.0 |
| NL Most Valuable Player | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Pete Alonso | Mets | 14.9 |
| 2 | Mookie Betts | Dodgers | 11.7 |
| 3 | Sandy Alcantara | Marlins | 21.1 |
| 4 | Brandon Woodruff | Brewers | 20.8 |
| 5 | Carlos Rodon | Giants | 19.8 |
| 6 | Julio Urias | Dodgers | 19.4 |
| 7 | Zac Gallen | Diamondbacks | 18.7 |
| 8 | Mark Canha | Mets | 8.7 |
| 9 | Joe Musgrove | Padres | 17.4 |
| 10 | Freddie Freeman | Dodgers | 8.5 |
Judge, who led American League batters in Box-Toppers points with 13.2, was voted AL MVP. Goldschmidt, who ranked seventh among National League batters with 7.5 Box-Toppers points, was voted NL MVP.
Voting was done by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). The results were similar in the separate vote by the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA), in which Box-Toppers voted Ohtani and Alonso for the awards (see Box-Toppers Most Valuable Player award ballot elsewhere on this page).
Ohtani earned 24.7 Box-Toppers points in 2022, second among all players and second among AL pitchers. Oddly, and for the second year in a row, Ohtani did not qualify to rank among batters in Box-Toppers rankings because he earned such an overwhelming majority of his Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors as a pitcher, even though he played many more games as a designated hitter.
Alonso led all NL batters with 14.9 Box-Toppers points in 2022.
AL Most Valuable Player
Judge won 28 of the 30 first-place votes for AL MVP and at first glance, he is AL MVP. He led all AL batters with 13.2 Box-Toppers points in a season in which he hit 62 home runs, breaking the 61-year-old AL single-season record.
(A look at official voting totals and how AL MVP vote recipients fared in Box-Toppers points.)
Judge also had more than half of the Box-Toppers points of top AL pitcher, Justin Verlander of the Astros (26.0). In recent seasons, Box-Toppers has awarded its MVP to pitchers who have more than twice as many points as the league’s top batter. In this case, it was close, but doubling Judge’s 13.2 points gives him 26.4 points to Verlander’s 26.0.
But consider Ohtani, who finished second in AL MVP with the remaining two first-place votes. Since we’re doubling Judge’s points as a batter, we should double the 5.0 points Ohtani earned as a batter, too. So doubling those points (10.0) and adding them to the points he earned as a starting pitcher (19.7), gives Ohtani an adjusted total of 29.7, more than both Judge (26.4) and Verlander (26.0).
That’s why we voted Ohtani over both Judge and Verlander for AL MVP.
In 2021, the year Ohtani actually won AL MVP by unanimous vote of baseball writers, Box-Toppers had Ohtani in the eighth-place spot on its ballot. He earned 16.1 Box-Toppers points that year. In retrospect, we should have adjusted his total, reflecting the 4.0 points he earned as a batter that season. That would have given him an adjusted total of 20.1 points, enough to raise him to fifth-place on Box-Toppers’ 2021 AL MVP ballot. We still would have given the 2021 award to Jose Ramirez of Cleveland, who had 13.0 points (adjusted to 26.0 points). With the adjustment, Ohtani would have finished just ahead of Judge last year, too. Judge had 9.0 points in 2021 (adjusted to 18.0).
While the AL MVP is normally a batters’ award, among the 10 choices on Box-Toppers’ ballot, only five are batters. Pitchers simply have continued to build their dominance in the past decade or so, making batters less relevant. Only two AL batters had more than 10 Box-Toppers points this season—Judge and Jose Ramirez of the Guardians (11.7). Contrast that to 1995 to 2002, when each year 10 or more AL batters had 10.0 or more points.
Judge earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in 12 Yankees wins in 2022, including AL Player of the Day honors once (worth a bonus 0.7 points) and AL Batter of the Day honors once (worth a bonus 0.5 points), giving him 13.2 points total.
Ohtani earned Player of the Game honors 17 times, including four times as a batter and 13 as a pitcher. He earned overall Player of the Day honors six times (worth 1.0 bonus point), AL Player of the Day honors once (worth 0.7 bonus points) and AL Batter of the Day honors twice (worth 0.5 bonus points), giving him 24.7 points total.
Though Ohtani earned Player of the Game honors far more frequently as a pitcher, he played more games as a batter in 2022. He played in 157 games as a batter—153 as designated hitter and four as a pinch hitter. He played in 28 games as a starting pitcher.
Other AL MVP notes:
Yordan Alvarez of the Astros, who was third among AL batters with 8.7 Box-Toppers points, finished third in voting.
Jose Ramirez of the Guardians, who was second among AL batters with 11.7 Box-Toppers points, finished fourth.
Six of the top 10 AL batters in Box-Toppers points received AL MVP votes—Judge, Ramirez, Alvarez, Alex Bregman of the Astros, Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners and Xander Bogaerts of the Red Sox. The highest-ranking batter who did not receive votes was George Springer of the Blue Jays, whose 8.0 Box-Toppers points was fifth among AL batters.
Five players Box-Toppers categorized as pitchers were among the 22 players who received AL MVP votes, including the top three ranked AL pitchers—Justin Verlander of the Astros (26.0 Box-Toppers points, first among AL pitchers), who finished in 10th; Ohtani and Dylan Cease of the White Sox (20.4 Box-Toppers points, third among AL pitchers), who finished tied for 22nd.
Two players who received votes ranked outside Box-Toppers’ top 100 batters for 2022—Andres Gimenez of the Guardians (2.0 Box-Toppers points, 120th among AL batters) who finished sixth in voting and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays (1.7 Box-Toppers points, 125th among AL batters) who finished 16th in voting.
NL Most Valuable Player
Goldschmidt, who won 22 of 30 first-place votes for NL MVP, was seventh among NL batters with 7.5 Box-Toppers points, which was 88th among all players.
(A look at official voting totals and how NL MVP vote recipients fared in Box-Toppers points.)
Goldschmidt led NL batters in slugging percentage (.578) and on-base plus slugging percentage (.981). He hit 35 homers (fifth among NL batters), 115 runs batted in (second among NL batters), 106 runs scored (third among NL batters), 178 hits (third among NL batters) and batted .317 (third among NL batters).
But he simply was not the NL batter who most frequently helped his team win the most games. Goldschmidt earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in six Cardinals wins in 2022, winning NL Batter of the Day honors in three of them (worth 0.5 bonus points), giving him 7.5 total points.
Goldschmidt does not even appear among the 10 ranked choices for NL MVP on Box-Toppers’ ballot. If the ballot extended to 17 places, he would have occupied a spot.
Box-Toppers’ choice for the award, Pete Alonso of the Mets, had nearly twice as many Box-Toppers points as Goldschmidt, 14.9. But Alonso finished eighth in voting, earning only one second-place vote from baseball writers.
Goldschmidt was often touted for the award because he almost won the Triple Crown by leading the NL in home runs, RBIs and batting average. Almost. But he didn’t and did not lead in any of the three categories. Alonso actually led Goldschmidt in two of those three categories—he led the NL in RBIs with 131 and was second in home runs with 40. Alonso trailed Goldschmidt in batting average (.293), which was sixth among NL batters.
Alonso earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in 10 Mets wins in 2022, earning 1.0 Box-Toppers point each time. In addition, he was NL Batter of the Day seven of those 10 times (earning 0.5 bonus points each time) and was NL Player of the Day twice (earning 0.7 bonus points each time), giving him 14.9 total points.
That point total was most among all batters in 2022, more than AL MVP Aaron Judge’s 13.2, who was second among all batters. It is the highest single-season point total for a batter since 2017, when Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs had 15.5.
Box-Toppers also named Alonso NL MVP because he had more than twice as many points as the top NL pitcher Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins (21.1). One other batter also had twice as many points as Alcantara—Mookie Betts of the Dodgers with 11.7 points, Box-Toppers’ vote for NL MVP runner-up. Alcantara, the top NL pitcher, finishes third on Box-Toppers’ ballot.
While two batters finish in the top two spots on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP ballot, only four of the 10 ballot spots are occupied by batters. Again, pitchers are so dominating Player of the Game honors even with the arbitrary doubling point adjustment for batters. As in the AL, only two NL batters reached 10.0 Box-Toppers points in 2022—Alonso and Betts.
Betts finished sixth in official NL MVP voting. Alcantara, winner of the NL Cy Young Award, finished 10th.
Other NL MVP notes:
Manny Machado of the Padres finished second in voting, picking up seven first-place votes. He earned 5.5 Box-Toppers points in 2022, 23rd among NL batters.
Nolan Arenado of the Cardinals finished third in voting, picking up one first-place vote. He earned 7.0 Box-Toppers points, ninth among NL batters. In fact, Arenado and Goldschmidt may have hurt each other’s NL MVP chances on Box-Toppers’ ballot because as teammates, they may have split Player of the Game honors in Cardinals wins. Arenado won Player of the Game honors five times, winning NL Batter of the Day honors four of those times. If you combined the teammates’ points, “Goldnado” would have had 14.5 Box-Toppers points—but that would still be fewer than Alonso’s 14.9.
Six of the top 10 NL batters in Box-Toppers points received NL MVP votes—Alonso, Betts, Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers, Austin Riley of the Braves, Goldschmidt and Arenado. The highest-ranking NL batter who did not receive MVP votes is Mark Canha of the Mets, whose 8.7 Box-Toppers points was third among NL batters. He is an anomaly on Box-Toppers ballot (in eighth place), given that his biggest claim to fame is leading NL batters in being hit by pitches (28). But he was seventh among NL batters in on base percentage (.367) and he was the key Mets player in seven of the team’s wins, earning Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors each time and earning bonus points as NL Player of the Day once and NL Batter of the Day twice. But that was enough for Box-Toppers to put Canha on its ballot, while leaving Goldschmidt and Arenado off.
Six NL batters had more Box-Toppers points than NL MVP Goldschmidt’s 7.5—Alonso (14.9), Betts (11.7), Canha (8.7), Freeman (8.5), Rowdy Tellez of the Brewers (8.2) and Riley (8.0).
Four pitchers received NL MVP votes, including Cy Young winner and NL Box-Toppers points leader Alcantara, who finished 10th, highest among all pitchers. Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias finished 14th with one third-place vote—his 19.4 Box-Toppers points was fourth among NL pitchers and he was sixth on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP ballot. Two relief pitchers also received votes—Daniel Bard of the Mets (8.0 Box-Toppers points, 36th among NL pitchers and first among NL closers) and Edwin Diaz (7.0 Box-Toppers points, 40th among NL pitchers and second among AL closers).
Two players who received votes ranked outside Box-Toppers’ top 100 batters for 2022—Starling Marte of the Mets (1.5 Box-Toppers points, 122nd among NL batters) and Trea Turner of the Dodgers (0.0 Box-Toppers points, 196th among NL batters). While Turner played 160 games in 2022 and was in the top 10 among NL batters in batting average, runs scored, hits, total bases, doubles, triples and runs batted in, there was always another teammate who beat him out for Player of the Game in Dodgers’ wins.
IBWAA voting for MVP
The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America also voted Judge and Goldschmidt as their 2022 Most Valuable Players. Box-Toppers, as a member of the IBWAA, voted for Shohei Ohtani of the Angels as AL MVP and Pete Alonso of the Mets as NL MVP. Here are IBWAA results:
AL MVP
1st Place: Aaron Judge, Yankees - 959 points
2nd Place: Shohei Ohtani, Angels - 751 points
3rd Place: Yordan Alvarez, Astros - 467 points
NL MVP
1st Place: Paul Goldschmidt, Cardinals - 908 points
2nd Place: Nolan Arenado, Cardinals - 582 points
3rd Place: Manny Machado, Padres - 523 points
The IBWAA was established in 2009 to serve the baseball writing community, representing more than 750 baseball content creators. Voting for full season awards takes place at the close of the regular season each year, with selections being announced in November. The IBWAA also holds Hall of Fame, preseason prediction, and All-Star Game voting.
About Box-Toppers—Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.
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American League Most Valuable Player Award voting
Aaron Judge of the Yankees was voted AL Most Valuable Player. Below are the AL players in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through 10th-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers points (BTP) for 2022 and their rank among AL batters (except in the case of pitchers, denoted with †, in which case their rank among AL pitcher is shown).Back to top
| 1st-10th place votes | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AL player | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points | BTP | Rank | |
| 1 | Aaron Judge | Yankees | cf rf | 28 | 2 | 410 | 13.2 | 1 | ||||||||
| 2 | Shohei Ohtani | Angels | pi sp* | 2 | 28 | 280 | 24.7 | 2† | ||||||||
| 3 | Yordan Alvarez | Astros | dh | 22 | 8 | 232 | 8.7 | 3 | ||||||||
| 4 | José Ramírez | Guardians | 3b | 6 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 186 | 11.7 | 2 | ||||
| 5 | Jose Altuve | Astros | 2b | 6 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 142 | 4.0 | 43 | |||
| 6 | Andrés Giménez | Guardians | 2b | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 141 | 2.0 | 120 | ||
| 7 | Julio Rodríguez | Mariners | cf | 1 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 108 | 7.5 | 8 | |||
| 8 | Mike Trout | Angels | cf | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 90 | 5.0 | 31 | ||||
| 9 | Xander Bogaerts | Red Sox | ss | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 50 | 7.0 | 9 | ||||
| 10 | Justin Verlander | Astros | pi sp | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 44 | 26.0 | 1† | ||||
| 11 | Bo Bichette | Blue Jays | ss | 2 | 3 | 2 | 16 | 6.5 | 15 | |||||||
| 12 | Adley Rutschman | Orioles | ca ph | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 4.0 | 54 | ||||||
| 13 | Luis Arraez | Twins | 1b 2b | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 5.5 | 22 | |||||||
| 14 | Rafael Devers | Red Sox | 3b | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 4.0 | 42 | |||||||
| 15 | Kyle Tucker | Astros | rf | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 4.5 | 34 | |||||||
| 16 | Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | Blue Jays | 1b | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1.7 | 125 | ||||||||
| 17 | José Abreu | White Sox | 1b | 1 | 5 | 2.5 | 80 | |||||||||
| 18 | Alek Manoah | Blue Jays | pi sp | 1 | 3 | 5 | 13.1 | 14† | ||||||||
| 19 | Alex Bregman | Astros | 3b | 1 | 4 | 8.7 | 4 | |||||||||
| 20 | Framber Valdez | Astros | pi sp | 1 | 2 | 16.0 | 5† | |||||||||
| 20 | Yandy Díaz | Rays | 3b dh | 1 | 2 | 4.0 | 46 | |||||||||
| 22 | Dylan Cease | White Sox | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 20.4 | 3† | |||||||||
| 22 | Sean Murphy | Athletics | ca | 1 | 1 | 3.5 | 59 | |||||||||
* Shohei Ohtani played most of his games as a designated hitter in 2022, however, he won the overwhelming majority of his Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors as a starting pitcher (13 of 17). For players to be listed at a position in Box-Toppers rankings, they need to have more than 25 percent of their Player of the Game honors at that position. Since Ohtani had fewer than 25 percent of his Player of the Game honors at DH, he did not qualify to rank at that position or among batters. He earned 19.7 of his 24.7 Box-Toppers points as a starting pitcher and 5.0 as a DH.
† When an AL pitcher received MVP votes, their Box-Toppers ranking is shown among AL pitchers.
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National League Most Valuable Player Award voting
Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals was voted NL Most Valuable Player. Below are the NL players in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through 10th-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers points (BTP) for 2022 and their rank among NL batters (except in the case of pitchers, denoted with †, in which case their rank among NL pitcher is shown).Back to top
| 1st-10th place votes | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL player | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points | BTP | Rank | |
| 1 | Paul Goldschmidt | Cardinals | 1b | 22 | 8 | 380 | 7.5 | 7 | ||||||||
| 2 | Manny Machado | Padres | 3b | 7 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 291 | 5.5 | 23 | |||||
| 3 | Nolan Arenado | Cardinals | 3b | 1 | 2 | 15 | 11 | 1 | 232 | 7.0 | 9 | |||||
| 4 | Freddie Freeman | Dodgers | 1b | 6 | 6 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 220 | 8.5 | 4 | ||||
| 5 | Mookie Betts | Dodgers | rf | 1 | 1 | 14 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 154 | 11.7 | 2 | |||
| 6 | Austin Riley | Braves | 3b | 5 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 116 | 8.0 | 6 | ||||
| 7 | J.T. Realmuto | Phillies | ca | 3 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 98 | 5.5 | 20 | |||||
| 8 | Pete Alonso | Mets | 1b | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 81 | 14.9 | 1 | |||
| 9 | Francisco Lindor | Mets | ss | 1 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 77 | 6.7 | 11 | ||||
| 10 | Sandy Alcantara | Marlins | pi sp | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 39 | 21.1 | 1† | |||
| 11 | Trea Turner | Dodgers | ss 2b | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 29 | 0.0 | 196 | |||||
| 12 | Dansby Swanson | Braves | ss | 2 | 5 | 7 | 23 | 5.7 | 19 | |||||||
| 13 | Michael Harris II | Braves | cf | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 3.5 | 55 | |||||||
| 14 | Julio Urías | Dodgers | pi sp | 1 | 8 | 19.4 | 4† | |||||||||
| 15 | Jeff McNeil | Mets | 2b lf | 1 | 3 | 6 | 2.5 | 82 | ||||||||
| 16 | Daniel Bard | Rockies | pi cp | 1 | 2 | 8.0 | 36† | |||||||||
| 16 | Kyle Schwarber | Phillies | lf | 1 | 2 | 2.0 | 96 | |||||||||
| 18 | Edwin Díaz | Mets | pi cp | 2 | 2 | 7.0 | 40† | |||||||||
| 19 | Starling Marte | Mets | rf | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 122 | |||||||||
† When an NL pitcher received MVP votes, their Box-Toppers ranking is shown among NL pitchers.
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