Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and New York Mets superstar shortstop Francisco Lindor have the chance to do something that has rarely been accomplished in MLB history.
Judge is fending off Kansas City Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. as the current favorite to win the American League MVP award thanks to his league-leading slugging peripherals — 51 home runs, 126 RBIs, and 1.141 OPS.
On the same token, Lindor has the Mets fighting for their playoff lives in a dead heat with the Atlanta Braves for the second and final Wild Card spot in the National League standings and is viewed as the primary threat to Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani for this year’s MVP crown in that league.
The Puerto Rican star is also three stolen bases away from joining the 30-30 club for the second straight season. If both standout performers were to take home MVP honors in 2024, they’d do something that has only been done 12 times before.
Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Mets’ Francisco Lindor could become the 13th pair to win MVP in the same city & year
MLB.com’s Manny Randhawa contextualized the implications that would come with Judge and Lindor both winning the top individual accolade in baseball, being the leaders of both New York baseball franchises. As he reported, they’d be the 13th duo representing the same city to win MVPs concurrently since the MLB began giving out the award in 1931:
“It’s only happened a dozen times since the Baseball Writers’ Association of America began awarding a Most Valuable Player Award in each league in 1931, but it could happen this year: the MVP for both the American and National Leagues coming from the same metropolitan area,” Randhawa wrote.
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The historical significance surrounding Judge and Lindor’s potential accomplishment
The last pair of players to win the award coming from the same city were Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels) and Cody Bellinger (L.A. Dodgers) back in 2019. It has only happened four times since 2000, with each instance happening with teams from cities in California. The last time a Yankees superstar had his name etched into the history books in this regard was Mickey Mantle, who won the AL MVP in 1956 alongside Don Newcombe of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Yankees have done so six times in history, with Mantle having achieved the feat once, former superstar catcher Yogi Berra having done so three times (1951, ’54, ’55), along with Joe DiMaggio (1941) and Lou Gehrig (1936). No Mets player has done so, which would make the achievement even more pronounced for Lindor. Judge would become a two-time AL MVP with the win while Lindor would win his first MVP after five top-10 finishes in his career.
