Aaron Judge of the Yankees, winner of the American League 2022 Hank Aaron Award given to the league’s best offensive performer, also led AL batters in Box-Toppers points.
Hank Aaron Awards
Here are finalists for the American League and National League Hank Aaron Awards, given to the best offensive performer in each league. Finalists in each league are shown ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the season. The rank shown is among their league’s batters. The winners are shown highlighted in red and in italics. Aaron Judge. of the Yankees, who led AL batters with 13.2 Box-Toppers points, won the AL Award and Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals, who ranked seventh among NL batters with 7.5 Box-Toppers points, won the NL Award.| AL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank | |
| > | Aaron Judge | Yankees | 13.2 | 1 |
| Jose Ramirez | Guardians | 11.7 | 2 | |
| Yordan Alvarez | Astros | 8.7 | 3 | |
| Julio Rodriguez | Mariners | 7.5 | 8 | |
| Mike Trout | Angels | 5.0 | 31 | |
| Rafael Devers | Red Sox | 4.0 | 42 | |
| Jose Altuve | Astros | 4.0 | 43 | |
| Shohei Ohtani | Yankees | 24.7 | —* | |
| NL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank | |
| Pete Alonso | Mets | 14.9 | 1 | |
| Mookie Betts | Dodgers | 11.7 | 2 | |
| Freddie Freeman | Dodgers | 8.5 | 4 | |
| Austin Riley | Braves | 8.0 | 6 | |
| > | Paul Goldschmidt | Cardinals | 7.5 | 7 |
| Nolan Arenado | Cardinals | 7.0 | 9 | |
| Manny Machado | Padres | 5.5 | 23 | |
| Kyle Schwarber | Phillies | 2.0 | 96 |
>—Denotes the league winner
* Ohtani did not qualify to rank among batters in Box-Toppers points because he earned the overwhelming majority of his Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors as a pitcher (13 of 17, 76.5 percent). However, Ohtani played most of his games as a designated hitter. Ohtani earned 5.0 Box-Toppers points total as a designated hitter and 19.7 as a starting pitcher.
Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals, who won the award in the National League, ranked seventh among NL batters in 2022 Box-Toppers points.
Winners were announced Wednesday, chosen from a field of eight finalists in each league by a panel of eight Hall of Fame players and a Major League Baseball fan vote.
Ten of the 16 finalists were among their league’s top 10 batters in Box-Toppers points, including award-winners Judge and Goldschmidt.
Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
Aaron Judge wins AL Aaron Award
Judge earned 13.2 Box-Toppers points in 2022 to lead AL batters in the season in which he hit 62 home runs, breaking the 61-year-old AL single-season record.
Oddly, though Aaron led AL batters in Box-Toppers points, he did not have the most Box-Toppers points among AL finalists for the award. That’s because Shohei Ohtani of the Angels was one of the finalists.
Ohtani earned 24.7 Box-Toppers points in 2022, but mainly as a starting pitcher. In fact, Ohtani earned such an overwhelming majority of his Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors as a pitcher (13 of 17) that he did not qualify to rank among batters. To be ranked at a position, a player must win more than 25 percent of their Player of the Game honors at that position. While Ohtani served as a batter in 157 games, he earned only 5.0 of his 24.7 points and just 23.5 percent of his Player of the Game honors as a batter.
Still, Ohtani’s 5.0 points earned as a batter were as many or more than three of the AL finalists—Mike Trout of the Angels (5.0), Rafael Devers of the Red Sox (4.0) and Jose Altuve of the Astros (4.0).
Ohtani ranked second overall in 2022 Box-Toppers points behind overall leader, Astros pitcher Justin Verlander (26.0 points) and also ranked second among AL pitchers behind Verlander.
In addition to Judge, these three top 10 AL batters in Box-Toppers points were also Hank Aaron Award finalists:
Jose Ramirez of the Guardians, 11.7 Box-Toppers points, second among AL batters.
Yordan Alvarez of the Astros, 8.7 points, third.
Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners, 7.5 points, eighth.
Among the highest-ranked AL batters in Box-Toppers points who were not among the finalists are Alex Bregman of the Astros (8.7 points, fourth among AL batters), George Springer of the Blue Jays (8.0 points, fifth) and Eugenio Suarez of the Mariners (8,0, sixth).
Paul Goldschmidt wins NL Aaron Award
Award-winner Goldschmidt ranked seventh among NL batters with 7.5 Box-Toppers points in 2022.
However, Goldschmidt led NL batters in slugging percentage (.578), on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) (.981) and finished among the top three NL batters in runs (106), runs batted in (115), total bases (324), batting average (.317) and on-base percentage (.404).
Pete Alonso led NL batters with 14.9 Box-Toppers points, most among all batters in 2022, 20th among all players and the highest single-season Box-Toppers point total for a batter since 2017, when Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs had 15.5 points.
Alonso led the NL in RBIs (131), was second in home runs (40) and sixth in slugging percentage (.518). But he was the key Mets player in 10 of the team wins in 2022, winning Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors each time, including winning overall NL Batter of the Day honors 10 times (worth 0.5 bonus points each) and overall NL Player of the Day honors twice (worth 0.7 bonus points each).
By contrast, Goldschmidt was the key player in Cardinals wins six times in 2022, winning NL Batter of the Day honors in three of those wins.
Three other finalists for the NL Aaron Award ranked ahead of Goldschmidt in 2022 Box-Toppers points:
Mookie Betts of the Dodgers, 11.7 Box-Toppers points, second among NL batters.
Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers, 8.5 points, fourth.
Austin Riley of the Braves, 8.0 points, sixth.
The highest-ranked NL batters who were not finalists for the award include Mark Canha of the Mets (8.7 points, third among NL batters) and Rowdy Tellez of the Brewers (8.2 points, fifth among NL batters).
The other three finalists for the award had fewer 2022 Box-Toppers points Goldschmidt:
Nolan Arenado of the Cardinals, 7.0 points, ninth among NL batters.
Manny Machado of the Padres, 5.5 points, 23rd.
Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies, 2.0 points, 96th.
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