Every year, Major League Baseball awards two players — one from the American League and one from the National League — with the Hank Aaron Award. The award honors the best offensive performer from each league. On November 9, 2022, MLB announced the winners of the award, and let’s just say that one was rather obvious.
Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge won the 2022 Hank Aaron Award for the American League. Judge set an American League home run record, belting 62 en route to helping the Yankees win the AL East crown. Besides home runs, the 30-year old set career highs in RBIs (132), runs scored (133), on-base percentage (.425), and OPS (1.111). Those totals led all MLB players.
Judge is one of three finalists for the 2022 AL MVP, and is expected to win the award.
On the National League side, Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt is the winner. “Goldy” hit 35 HRs in 2022, the seventh time in Goldschmidt’s career that he hit 30 or more home runs in a single season. Goldschmidt batted .315 for the Cardinals, and led all National League players in SLG (.578) and OPS (.981).
Like Judge, Goldschmidt is a finalist for the 2022 MVP award, on the National League side. The other two finalists are Padres infielder Manny Machado and fellow Cardinals infielder Nolan Arenado.
