| Award | Winner | Team | BTP | Rank* | BTP leader | Team | BTP | Rank* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player of the Year | Aaron Judge | Yankees | 13.2 | 28 | Justin Verlander | Astros | 26.0 | 1 |
| AL Outstanding Player | Aaron Judge | Yankees | 13.2 | 1 | Aaron Judge | Yankees | 13.2 | 1 |
| NL Outstanding Player | Paul Goldschmidt | Cardinals | 7.5 | 7 | Pete Alonso | Mets | 14.9 | 1 |
| AL Outstanding Pitcher | Justin Verlander | Astros | 26.0 | 1 | Justin Verlander | Astros | 26.0 | 1 |
| NL Outstanding Pitcher | Sandy Alcantara | Marlins | 21.1 | 1 | Sandy Alcantara | Marlins | 21.1 | 1 |
| AL Outstanding Rookie | Julio Rodriguez | Mariners | 7.5 | 2† | Joe Ryan | Twins | 14.7 | NA† |
| NL Outstanding Rookie | Spencer Strider | Braves | 13.4 | 1† | Spencer Strider | Braves | 13.4 | 1† |
| AL Comeback Player | Justin Verlander | Astros | 26.0 | 1** | Justin Verlander | Astros | 26.0 | 1** |
| NL Comeback Player | Ronald Acuna Jr. | Braves | 3.5 | 77** | Miles Mikolas | Cardinals | 12.1 | 4** |
* Rank is shown based on the overall group the player is compared against. For example, Aaron Judge ranks 28th among all players, but ranks first among all AL batters.
† For rookie, players are ranked based on players who made their Box-Toppers debut in 2022. Spencer Strider had the most Box-Toppers points of players who made their Box-Toppers debut in 2022. However, Joe Ryan is the top-ranked AL rookie, despite making his Box-Toppers debut in 2021. He still held rookie status in 2022, but is not ranked among players who made their debut in 2022. If he were, his 14.7 points would rank first overall, ahead of Strider’s 13.4
** For Comeback Player, ranks shown are among each league’s most improved players in Box-Toppers point total from 2021 to 2022. Mikolas does not rank first among the NL’s most improved point totals, but in terms of suffering a setback, missing significant time and coming back, he ranks highest in the NL.
Five Box-Toppers points category leaders also won Players Choice Awards for 2022 as voted by the players’ union:
Justin Verlander of the Astros won two awards—he was voted American League Outstanding Pitcher and AL Comeback Player. He led AL pitchers with 26.0 Box-Toppers points and was Box-Toppers’ most improved player in 2022, with the biggest gain in points from 2021 to 2022, +26.0 (0.0 points in 2021, 26.0 in 2022).
Aaron Judge of the Yankees, who was voted American League Outstanding Player, also led AL batters with 13.2 Box-Toppers points.
Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins, who was voted National League Outstanding Pitcher, also led NL pitchers with 21.1 Box-Toppers points.
Spencer Strider of the Braves, who was voted NL Outstanding Rookie, also led NL rookies with 13.4 Box-Toppers points.
In addition, Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners, who was voted AL Outstanding Rookie, earned 7.5 Box-Toppers points in 2022 and is our pick for AL Rookie of the Year on our internet baseball writers ballot. Rodriguez did not have the most points among AL rookies, but for awards in which pitchers and batters are directly compared, Box-Toppers gives a generous (if arbitrary) benefit of the doubt to batters, doubling their points when directly comparing them to pitchers. That gave Rodriguez an adjusted total of 15.0 points, more than any other rookie AL pitcher.
Here is a look at Players Choice Award winners in nine categories and the Box-Toppers points leader in each category:
Player of the Year
Aaron Judge of the Yankees was voted Player of the Year for the season in which he broke Roger Maris’s AL single-season home run record of 61 by hitting 62. While Judge did lead AL batters in Box-Toppers points with 13.2, he ranked 28th among all players in 2022 Box-Toppers points.
Astros pitcher Justin Verlander led all players with 26.0 Box-Toppers points. However, our choice for AL Most Valuable Player was not Verlander but Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani, who ranked second overall with 24.7 Box-Toppers points.
In cases in which pitchers and batters are directly compared for honors such as Player of the Year, we double batters’ Box-Toppers point total. While this would give Judge 26.4 points to Verlander’s 26.0, it also boosts Ohtani’s total to 29.7, since he earned 5.0 of his 24.7 points as a designated hitter.
Judge ranked first among AL batters even though Ohtani had more Box-Toppers points. That’s because Ohtani earned such an overwhelming majority of Player of the Game honors as a pitcher (13 of 17) that he did not qualify to rank among batters. (Players must have more than 25 percent of their Player of the Game honors at a certain position to be ranked at that position.)
AL Outstanding Player
Award-winner Judge led AL batters with 13.2 Box-Toppers points, just ahead of Jose Ramirez of the Guardians with 11.7 points.
NL Outstanding Player
Award-winner Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals ranked seventh among NL batters with 7.5 Box-Toppers points. Pete Alonso of the Mets led NL batters (and all batters in 2022) with 14.9 Box-Toppers points. Other NL batters ranking ahead of Goldschmidt in 2022 are:
Mookie Betts of the Dodgers, 11.7 points.
Mark Canha of the Mets, 8.7.
Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers, 8.5.
Rowdy Tellez of the Brewers, 8.2.
Austin Riley of the Braves, 8.0.
AL Outstanding Pitcher
Award-winner Verlander also led all players and all AL pitchers with 26.0 Box-Toppers points. While Ohtani ranked second among AL pitchers with 24.7 points, if you subtract his 5.0 points earned as a designated hitter, he falls to third among AL pitchers with 19.7, behind Dylan Cease of the White Sox (20.4).
NL Outstanding Pitcher
Award-winner Alcantara also led NL pitchers with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, ahead of Brandon Woodruff of the Brewers (20.8).
AL Outstanding Rookie
Award-winner Rodriguez would also be Box-Toppers’ choice as top AL rookie, even though he didn’t lead AL rookies in Box-Toppers points.
Rodriguez earned 7.5 Box-Toppers points in 2022 (90th among all players and eighth among AL batters), which was slightly more than half the point total of the top AL rookie pitcher, Joe Ryan of the Twins (15.0). We give batters the benefit of a doubt in this award, doubling their point total when comparing them to pitchers. In this case, that gives Rodriguez an adjusted total of 15.0 points to Ryan’s 14.7, giving our edge for top AL rookie to Rodriguez.
Despite Ryan being the top-ranked AL rookie, he does not rank among AL players making their Box-Toppers debut in 2022. While Ryan maintains rookie status in 2022, he made his Box-Toppers debut in 2021 and earned 2.7 points that season. The top-ranked AL rookie making his Box-Toppers debut in 2022 is Mariners pitcher George Kirby (11.4 points). Though Rodriguez also has fewer points than Kirby, his adjusted point total (15.0) is higher than Kirby’s for the purpose of this award, giving Rodriguez the edge.
NL Outstanding Rookie
Award-winner Strider also led NL rookies with 13.4 Box-Toppers points. The second-ranked rookie is Reds pitcher Nick Lodolo (7.0). The top NL rookie batter is Nolan Gorman of the Cardinals with 5.0 points. Even doubling Gorman’s points as a batter for purposes of comparison for the award, gives him 10.0 points, still fewer than Strider’s 13.4.
AL Comeback Player
Verlander not only led players in Box-Toppers points gained from 2021 to 2022, he set the record for most points gained from one season to the next since tracking began in 1995.
Verlander earned no Box-Toppers points in 2021 as he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. He came back in 2022 to earn 26.0 Box-Toppers points, leading all players for the season and doing it 10 years after he previously led all players (in 2012 with the Tigers, he had 24.8 Box-Toppers points, first overall).
Verlander’s 26.0-point gain breaks the record for most points gained from one season to the next, set by Blake Snell of the Rays in 2018, who gained 22.2 points, earning 5.0 points in 2017 and 27.2 in 2018.
This is one of only five times a player has increased their point total by more than 20 points from one season to the next. In addition to Verlander and Snell, the other three are:
Max Scherzer, who gained 21.1 points from 2020 with the Nationals (4.0) to 2021 with the Nationals and Dodgers (25.1).
Corey Kluber of Cleveland, who gained 20.8 points from 2013 (5.0) to 2014 (25.8).
Zack Wheeler of the Phillies, who gained 20.1 points from 2020 (1.0) to 2021 (21.1).
(In Scherzer’s and Wheeler’s cases, it should be noted that point totals in 2020 were diminished because it was a pandemic-shortened season.)
Verlander not only had the biggest point gain from 2021 to 2022, but he met the criteria of a comeback player after missing nearly two full seasons recovering from elbow surgery. Verlander earned 1.0 point in 2020 after having earned 27.5 in 2019, second overall behind then-Astros teammate Gerrit Cole (32.2).
NL Comeback Player
Award-winner Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Braves earned 3.5 Box-Toppers points in 2022, the year after he earned 1.0 point in 2021 and tore his right knee ACL, missing half the season.
But the 2.5-point gain Acuna made from 2021 to 2022 ranked only 77th among NL players.
Box-Toppers’ choice for NL Comeback Player is Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas, who earned 12.1 Box-Toppers points in 2022 after earning no points in either 2020 or 2021. He missed 2020 after undergoing flexor tendon surgery in his right arm and also missed most of the 2021 season, pitching in only nine games.
Mikolas is the highest-ranking NL player who meets the criteria for comeback player, he ranks fourth among players in points gained from 2021 to 2022, behind:
Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen, who gained 14.7 points from 4.0 in 2021 to 18.7 in 2022.
Braves pitcher Kyle Wright, who gained 14.4 points from 0.0 in 2021 to 14.4 in 2022.
Braves pitcher Spencer Strider, who gained 13.4 points from 0.0 in 2021 to 13.4 in 2022.
Gallen pitched in 23 games in 2021 and 31 in 2022 and while he had the most-improved season among NL players, he wasn’t making any sort of “comeback.” Both Wright and Strider are younger players just beginning their careers and also are not making any sort of comeback.
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The baseball union also awarded the Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award to Francisco Lindor of the Mets, an honor given to a player whose leadership inspires others. Lindor earned 6.7 Box-Toppers points in 2022, 11th among NL batters and first among NL shortstops.
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Last year, only one Box-Toppers point category leader won a Players Choice Award. Max Scherzer, then of the Dodgers, who led all players in 2021 Box-Toppers points with 25.1, was voted National League Outstanding Pitcher. In the other eight relevant categories, a player lower in Box-Toppers player rankings won the award.
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.
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