Remember Aaron Judge? The guy who hit 58 home runs? Had the highest single-season WAR for a New York Yankees player since 1957? Had a 50-game stretch in which he hit .403 with 26 home runs? With the Most Valuable Player Award being announced today, here’s a reminder that Judge had a season for the ages and that he will win the American League award for the second time.

While the lasting memory of his season will be his struggles in October, when he hit .184 with three home runs in 14 games, Judge had an amazing regular season — and that’s all that counts in MVP voting. He hit .322/.458/.701 with 58 home runs and 144 RBIs. For the second time in three years, Judge topped 10 WAR and advanced metrics point to the historic nature of his 2024 performance: the highest adjusted OPS ever for a right-handed batter, the highest adjusted OPS ever for a center fielder, the highest adjusted runs created for any hitter besides Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams and Barry Bonds.

With his third career 50-homer season, Judge became only the fifth player to do that at least three times, joining Ruth and three others whose numbers now exist in a cloud of suspicion (Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez).

It’s this fact that raises a fun question as we await the MVP announcement: Is Judge the greatest pure home run hitter of all time? Let’s put his numbers into perspective and compare him to some of baseball’s greatest sluggers.

NEW YORK — With uncertainty looming over when Japanese baseball star Roki Sasaki will sign with a major league club, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred offered some clarity Wednesday, saying that he expected Sasaki to be part of the 2025 international amateur class.

That would mean Sasaki, one of the top pitchers in the world, will be posted after Dec. 2 and will not sign with a club before Jan. 15.

“It kind of looks like the way it’s going to shake out that the signing there, just because of the timing, will happen in the new pool period,” Manfred said at MLB’s Manhattan offices, where the owners meetings are taking place this week.

Earlier this month, the Chiba Lotte Marines made official what was anticipated around the baseball industry for months, announcing it would post Sasaki this winter.

The signing period for international free agents stretches from Jan. 15 to Dec. 15 every year. All 30 clubs have 45 days to negotiate with a player from Nippon Professional Baseball once he is posted. If a deal is not struck in that 45-day period, the player is returned to his NPB team.

In Sasaki’s case, he is considered an international amateur free agent and, as a result, can only sign a minor league deal because he is under the age of 25 and didn’t play six seasons in NPB. That designation, combined with international bonus pools being capped, suppresses the amount of money teams can pay the 23-year-old Sasaki, who surely would have reaped a nine-figure contract in an unrestricted market if he had waited another two years to join an MLB club.

Sasaki would have been eligible for the 2024 signing period only if he were posted before Dec. 2 because the 45-day negotiating window would elapse before the 2025 signing period begins. Most clubs have spent their allotment for the 2024 period. Sasaki waiting until the 2025 period resets each club’s budget. That theoretically could give more teams a better opportunity to land a starting pitcher with a triple-digit fastball, nasty splitter and top-flight slider at a bargain price a year after the Los Angeles Dodgers signed then-25-year-old Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 12-year, $325 million contract last winter.

The Dodgers have been widely considered the favorites to sign Sasaki, too. They had the most international bonus pool money remaining for the 2024 signing period — about $2.5 million — ostensibly to offer Sasaki. Rules stipulate their 2025 bonus pool is capped at approximately $5.1 million.

The largest bonus pools for 2025 are set at around $7.5 million, though most teams have committed the majority, if not all, of their money to players in nonbinding deals. Clubs could, however, choose not to honor those verbal pacts and trade for international bonus space to offer Sasaki more money.

MLB to test robot umpires in spring

Also Wednesday, Manfred said MLB would test robot umpires as part of a challenge system during spring training at 13 ballparks hosting 19 teams, which could lead to regular-season use in 2026.

MLB has been experimenting with the automated ball-strike system in the minor leagues since 2019 but is still working on the shape of the strike zone.

An agreement for big league use would have to be reached with the Major League Baseball Umpires Association, whose collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1.

“I would be interested in having it in ’26,” Manfred said Wednesday. “We do have a collective bargaining obligation there. That’s obviously a term and condition of employment. We’re going to have to work through that issue, as well.”

Manfred said the spring training experiment would have to be evaluated before MLB determined how to move forward.

MLB to give Tampa area time on ballpark

Manfred also discussed the Tampa Bay Rays‘ ballpark situation following Hurricane Milton, saying there has been no thought to allowing the team to explore a relocation.

Manfred said Tampa-area politicians will be given time to sort out the situation.

“Given the devastation in that area, it’s kind of only fair to give the local governments in the Tampa Bay region an opportunity to sort of figure out where they are, what they have available in terms of resources, what’s doable,” Manfred said.

Tampa Bay announced a stadium plan in September 2023 but following Hurricane Milton, which damaged Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg on Oct. 9, the Pinellas County Commission has not approved financing bonds for the new ballpark. The Rays said this week the new ballpark wouldn’t be able to open until 2029, if at all.

“We’re committed to the fans in Tampa Bay,” Manfred said. “Given all that’s happened in that market, we’re focused on our franchise in Tampa Bay right now.”

No 2025 games in Mexico City, San Juan

Manfred announced that MLB has scrapped plans to play regular-season games next year in Mexico City and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The season opens on March 18 and 19 with a two-game series in Tokyo between Shohei Ohtani‘s Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs. The collective bargaining agreement agreed to in 2022 also called for Mexico City games next May, the first Paris games in June and San Juan games in September.

MLB called off the France games in 2023 after failing to find a promoter. It played 49 regular-season games at San Juan’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium from 2001 to 2018. Scheduled games at San Juan and Mexico City in 2020 were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re not going to San Juan. We did not have, despite a lot of efforts, an arrangement that made economic sense for us,” Manfred said. “We’d like to do San Juan and what’s available kind of changes year to year and I hope it all works out in the future.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Chris Sale and Tarik Skubal have a lot in common: left-handed, pitching Triple Crown winners, former Tommy John surgery patients. And now, first-time Cy Young Award recipients.

Sale’s comeback season with the Atlanta Braves ended with the National League honor, as he received 26 of the 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to finish ahead of Philadelphia‘s Zack Wheeler, who received the other four, and Pittsburgh rookie Paul Skenes.

Skubal, the ace for the Detroit Tigers, won the American League award in unanimous fashion, with Kansas City‘s Seth Lugo (16-9, 3.00 ERA) finishing a distant second in the voting. Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase (47 saves) was third.

It was only the third time two left-handers won Cy Young honors in the same season, with Steve Carlton and Sparky Lyle winning in 1977 and Randy Johnson and Barry Zito in 2002.

Sale, 35, finished 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts — leading the NL in wins, ERA and strikeouts. He and Skubal were the first pitchers to win the Triple Crown in a full season since Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander did it in 2011 (Shane Bieber did it in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season).

A pitching Triple Crown has happened 25 times, and a Cy Young Award has followed each time.

Sale’s resurgence was a blast from last decade, when he was one of the top starting pitchers in the sport. He had battled a series of injuries since 2019, including Tommy John surgery in March 2020.

“To be able to show my sons the hard work, the dedication, not giving up. My wife having my back the whole time. I’m sure I was real peachy at times during those injuries,” Sale said. “I was talking to my dad the other day and whether it did or didn’t happen, he was proud of me.”

From 2020 to 2023, Sale made only 31 starts, although 20 of those came with the Boston Red Sox last season. The Braves took a chance and acquired him in an offseason trade.

“The biggest thing is health,” said Sale, who was named the NL Comeback Player of the Year last week at Major League Baseball’s All-MLB Awards Show. “I was healthy earlier in my career and I was able to sustain some success and stay out on the field. Ran into a buzz saw over the past handful of years. Just couldn’t stay healthy, couldn’t stay on the field, and you’re not doing anything when you’re not on the field.”

He responded with a season that looked like his prime years with the White Sox and Red Sox from 2012 to 2018, when he received Cy Young votes all seven seasons — finishing second, third, fourth, fifth (twice) and sixth (twice). He had been tied with Mike Mussina and Nolan Ryan for the most top-five finishes (six) without winning.

In 2024, Sale made his most starts and pitched his most innings since 2017, not missing a start until the final week of the season, when he was scratched in a crucial season-ending series against the New York Mets because of back spasms and then sat out the Braves’ wild-card series loss to the San Diego Padres.

Along the way, Sale won his final eight decisions as the Braves won a wild-card berth, overcoming a disappointing first half to make a late run and capture a playoff spot on the final day of the season. The Braves went 12-2 over his final 14 starts, with Sale posting a 1.93 ERA.

He not only led the NL in the Triple Crown categories but also led in ERA+, fewest home runs allowed per nine innings (0.5), strikeout rate (32.1%) and most strikeouts per nine (11.4). He led all pitchers in FanGraphs WAR (6.4) while ranking third behind Skubal and Cincinnati‘s Hunter Greene in Baseball-Reference WAR (6.2).

Sale’s ERA was the lowest for a Braves left-hander in the expansion era (since 1961).

It was the eighth Cy Young for the Braves’ organization, and the first since Tom Glavine won for the second time in 1998.

With his signature unorthodox sidearm delivery, Sale’s stuff hasn’t lost anything from his prime, despite all the injuries. He averaged 94.8 mph on his fastball, and batters hit just .171 with one home run in 280 at-bats off his slider.

“It’s special and I appreciate it,” Sale said. “It wasn’t just me rolling out there and throwing the baseball. There were a lot of people who got me here: teammates, family, training staff. For me to go out there and do what I was able to do, I wouldn’t have done it without them. The last few years were tough, so to go through what I went through with the support I had, I’m very thankful.”

Skubal, who celebrated his 28th birthday Wednesday, had the breakout season that many saw coming after the second half of the 2023 season. He finished 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts in 2024. He was certainly the team MVP for the surprising Tigers, who had a historic surge over the final seven weeks of the season to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2014.

“It was a ton of fun to be part of,” Skubal said. “The last two months of our season and even the postseason was very special. The memories and the experience will obviously help our club going forward, and I’m glad we got to experience it as a team and as a young team.”

Skubal, who had Tommy John surgery in college at Seattle University, was a ninth-round pick of the Tigers in 2018, but he climbed quickly through the minors and reached the majors in 2020. After a solid rookie season in 2021, he battled injuries in 2022 and ’23, but he posted a 2.80 ERA in 15 starts last season, including 2.15 over his final 10 outings.

That carried over into 2024. Skubal won his first six decisions, posting a 1.80 ERA, and made his first All-Star team. With the Tigers under .500 as the trade deadline approached, Skubal’s name was mentioned in trade rumors, but the Tigers kept him — although they did trade Jack Flaherty to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

An unlikely run to the postseason followed. The Tigers were 55-63 on Aug. 10 but went 31-13 in their final 44 games. Skubal went 5-0 with a 1.85 ERA over that stretch, including two 2-1 victories.

His ERA was the lowest for a qualified Detroit starter since Mark Fidrych in 1976, and he’s the Tigers’ first Cy Young winner since Max Scherzer in 2013. Verlander, Willie Hernandez and Denny McLain (twice) also won the award with Detroit.

Skubal has a five-pitch repertoire, and his four-seam fastball averaged 96.8 mph and ranked in the 99th percentile of all pitchers in Statcast run value. He mixes in a changeup, sinker, slider and knuckle-curveball. Overall, batters hit just .201 against him with a .558 OPS.

“It’s special,” Skubal said. “All the hard work, all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes, moments like this make it extremely worth it.”

Skenes, the 22-year-old who won the NL Rookie of the Year award Monday, finished third in the NL Cy Young balloting — just the fifth rookie to finish among the top three. Only Fernando Valenzuela won both awards in the same year, in 1981 with the Dodgers in the NL.

Clase, with a 0.61 ERA in 74⅓ innings over 74 games, is the first reliever to finish among the top three in Cy Young voting since San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman came in second for the NL award in 2006.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.