Judge, Alcantara, Díaz honored with Baseball Digest awards

Aaron Judge has been named the 2022 Baseball Digest/eBay MLB Player of the Year, Baseball Digest announced Thursday. The publication also announced that Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara was voted MLB Pitcher of the Year and Mets right-hander Edwin Díaz was voted MLB Relief Pitcher of the Year by a 22-member blue-ribbon panel consisting of writers, broadcasters, former players, managers and executives.

Judge set an American League record by launching 62 home runs during the regular season, surpassing the old mark of 61, which was set by the Yankees’ Roger Maris in 1961. The 30-year-old Yankees slugger led the Majors in homers, runs scored (133), on-base percentage (.425), slugging percentage (.686), OPS (1.111), OPS+ (211) and total bases (391). He also finished tied with the Mets’ Pete Alonso for the most RBIs in MLB with 131, and he led the AL with 111 walks.

The MLB Player of the Year Award is the second Baseball Digest honor Judge has won -- he was also voted the 2017 Baseball Digest Rookie of the Year. He is the third Yankee to win the MLB Player of the Year Award since Baseball Digest first awarded it in 1969, joining Ron Guidry (1978) and Derek Jeter (2006). Judge received 18 first-place votes from the 22-member panel, with Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani garnering four first-place votes.

Alcantara posted a 2.28 ERA in an MLB-high 228 2/3 innings during the regular season, and he led the bigs with six complete games. The 27-year-old right-hander pitched eight or more innings in 14 of his 32 starts on the season, the most by any pitcher since 2014. Alcantara’s 2.28 ERA this year marked the second-lowest ERA by any qualified starting pitcher in Marlins history behind Kevin Brown’s 1.89 in 1996.

Alcantara is the second pitcher in Marlins history to win the Baseball Digest Pitcher of the Year Award, joining Dontrelle Willis, who won the honor in 2005. Alcantara received 14 first-place votes, and Astros ace Justin Verlander received eight.

Díaz was the most dominant reliever in baseball in 2022, posting a 1.31 ERA in 61 appearances (62 innings), recording 32 saves for the Mets while striking out an incredible 50.2% of batters he faced.

The 28-year-old flamethrower held opposing batters to a .160 batting average and walked only 18. He is the first Mets reliever to win the Baseball Digest Relief Pitcher of the Year Award. He garnered 17 first-place votes, while the Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase received five first-place votes.