FOR THE NEXT three days, baseball's two finest players this year will share the field at Yankee Stadium. It's a cause for celebration and mutual appreciation -- because as much as Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. are spurring a debate over who deserves the American League MVP award, they're on the verge of reaching the hallowed sort of level that will tie them together in history, not pit them against one another.
In the hundreds of thousands of individual baseball seasons played since MLB's modern era began in 1920, only 46 times has a player finished a year with at least 10 wins above replacement, as calculated by FanGraphs. This list constitutes a collection of the greatest seasons ever. And sooner than later, the 2024 versions of Judge and Witt should join the fraternity.
They really have been that good. In a bereft offensive environment, with pitchers as advantaged as they've been in decades, Judge and Witt have spent five months toying with opponents. Judge, the New York Yankees' 6-foot-7 leviathan captain, is putting up a generational offensive season, hitting for the sort of power rarely seen in the game's history. Witt, the Kansas City Royals' franchise player, a 6-foot-1 bundle of fast-twitch speed, is translating his immense physical tools into something positively symphonic -- a hit/run/field combination that has long foretold superstardom.
It's no surprise, then, that the two best players in the game this season admire one another.
"He's just so consistent," Witt told ESPN this week of Judge. "That's the name of the game: Stay healthy, stay on the field and help the team. He does that in a good way, and he does it the right way. He's not out there showboating. He's a big dude. He can do whatever he wants. He's the king of New York."
"He's the complete player," Judge said this weekend of Witt. "Can hit, run, field, do everything. He was already a great player last year, but he continues to improve every single game I watch him."