Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

Aaron Judge trots after hitting one of his 62nd homers in the regular season. Judge is the favorite for AL MVP for the 2022 season.

Although the MLB season has ended, the awards are yet to be announced. Awards like MVP and Cy Young directly reflect who had the best individual performance in the 2022 season, which in some cases can be controversial.

AL MVP: The American League MVP for most people is no debate: Aaron Judge. But, Shohei Ohtani has been underappreciated this season. Ohtani has thrown for a 2.33 ERA which ranks sixth in the entire MLB and 219 strikeouts which also ranks sixth. Not only did Ohtani put up a Cy Young worthy year, he also hit for 34 home runs and had a .273 batting average.

“As much as I would love Ohtani to win, I still think Aaron Judge will win Al MVP this year because of his historic batting season,” senior Braden LaChapelle said.

Aaron Judge was very close to winning the triple crown award which is best batting average, most home runs and most RBI’s out of all American League hitters. He batted .311 with 131 RBI’s and 62 home runs which is the most out of anyone outside of the steroid era.

NL MVP: The National League MVP on the other hand is almost 100 percent going to be Paul Goldschmidt from the Cardinals because of his .317 batting average, 35 home runs and 115 RBI’s.

AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros put on a show this postseason. However, he made a real impact in the regular season with a 1.75 ERA. Verlander is 39 years old and hasn’t lost any velocity since his early ages.

“He has shown that he never left his prime and will win Cy Young for the American League,” Kemp said.

NL Cy Young: Sandy Alcantara will win the NL Cy Young after his breakthrough season. He had a 2.28 ERA and stayed consistent throughout the season which helped the Marlins go from a bad team to a competitive team.

“Alcantara was so dominant throughout the season, it made me realize how great he could be,” senior Dan Avillo said.