Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is two for two in NL MVP awards since moving to the Senior Circuit in 2024, while New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is an AL MVP for the third time in four years.

Ohtani won his second straight NL MVP award and fourth overall Thursday by defeating fellow finalists Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies and Juan Soto of the New York Mets.

He received 30 first-place votes, winning the award in unanimous fashion. Schwarber finished second, recording 23 second-place votes compared to four for Soto.

With four MVP awards already in his trophy case, the only player in MLB history with more is Barry Bonds (seven).

As for Judge, he defeated fellow finalists Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners and José Ramírez of the Cleveland Guardians.

He landed 17 of the first-place votes to Raleigh’s 13:

One year after Ohtani decided to become a base-stealer because he was unable to pitch while recovering from elbow surgery and putting up a historic 50-50 season, he was back to a more “basic” approach to things in 2025.

Of course, for Ohtani, a back-to-basics formula means posting a .282/.392/.622 slash line with 55 homers and 20 stolen bases as a DH. He didn’t return to pitching until the middle of the season, but looked like he did prior to the injury with a 2.87 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 47 innings.

The 31-year-old led the NL in on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS+ (179). Juan Soto (160) was the only NL player within 20 points of his OPS+.

Only accounting for his production as a hitter, Ohtani led all NL position players with 7.5 FanGraphs’ wins above replacement. He also contributed a 2.87 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 47 innings as a pitcher after returning to the rotation on June 16.

Ohtani’s 1.9 fWAR as a pitcher raised his total to 9.4 for the 2025 season. Judge (10.1) was the only player in either league with a higher WAR total.

Those two have been the defining players of this era. They were fighting over MVP awards when Ohtani was in the AL, but now he has left everyone in the NL in his wake since signing with the Dodgers in December 2023.

That also cleared the way for Judge to win it again on the AL side.

Judge spent most of the season as the AL MVP frontrunner. He was easily the best offensive player in all of MLB, leading the league in all three triple-slash categories (.331/.457/.688) and hitting 53 homers in 152 games.

Among position players, Judge’s 10.1 FanGraphs’ wins above replacement was one full win better than anyone else (Raleigh: 9.1).

Over the course of the season, though, Raleigh closed the gap in the MVP race with a historic performance made all the more impressive because he did it primarily playing catcher.

Raleigh became the seventh player in MLB history to hit at least 60 homers in a season. He also set a record for most homers as a catcher (49). His final slash line of .247/.359/.589 pales in comparison to what Judge did, but the benefit of playing the most physically demanding position on the field elevated his case.

It also helped that Raleigh closed the regular season strong with a 1.030 OPS in September to help the Mariners win their first AL West title since 2001.

There didn’t seem to be a wrong choice among the top two AL MVP contenders, but Judge ultimately got the edge for being so dominant at the plate. His 215 OPS+ was 36 points higher than any other player in MLB (Shohei Ohtani: 179).

Judge’s win moves him into rarified air as one of 13 players in MLB history with at least three MVP awards. He joins Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle as the only Yankees players with three MVP awards.