*Aside from Aaron Judge, who’s such an obvious AL MVP frontrunner that it’s boring
Editor’s Note: All stats are from the morning of June 11th, 2025
American League MVP Race
If you take a look at baseball reference’s batting leaderboards for the American League, one player is currently dominating most statistical categories. To absolutely no one’s surprise, that player is Aaron Judge. Judge leads not just the AL but all of Major League Baseball with 5.2 bWAR and 5.9 fWAR, and his .396 Batting average, .491 on base percentage, and .776 slugging percentage leads all of baseball. Taking a look at his advanced statistics make his stats this year even more impressive. For example, he’s currently sporting a 250 OPS+ and 246 wRC+, which means he’s 250% or 246% better than a league average replacement level hitter. Unless Judge gets injured and misses significant playing time during the rest of the season, he’ll easily walk away with another MVP award.
He does have some competition in the Mariner’s Cal Raleigh, who leads the league with 26 homeruns (two more than Judge), but his 4,0 fWAR is so far behind Judge’s 5.8 fWAR that I don’t see how Raleigh or any other player in the American League can catch up. The Kansas City Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr is another player in contention for the MVP race, and he’s not that far behind Raleigh. The young phenom is hitting .291/.349./.490 with 8 HRs and 21 SBs (tied for third), good for a 125wRC+ / 134 OPS+. Thanks to great defense, Witt has been worth 3.5fWAR and 3.4bWAR.
Another American League Shortstop in contention for MVP is Jeremy Pena of the Houston Astros. Pena is hitting .319/.375/.484 with 9 hrs and 13 SB, good for a 145 wRC+ and 141 OPS+. He’s currently second in the AL behind Judge with 4.0 bWAR and fifth with 3.3 fWAR. Yet another SS also in the race is the Athletics Jacob Wilson, who is ahead of Pena with 3.3 fWAR, but further behind with 2.6 bWAR. Wilson is hitting .366/.402/.520 with a 162 wRC+ and 158 OPS+
National League MVP race
The NL MVP race is a lot more competitive than the AL’s MVP race. Pete Crow Armstrong currently leads the league with 3.8 bWAR and 3.6 fWAR, with a lot of his value coming from his elite centerfield defense. What makes that defense even more valuable is that hasn’t been a slouch offensively; he’s hit .271/.305/.545 with a 136 wRC+ and 145 OPS+. Like Witt, he’s been a threat on the base paths with 21 steals, but he’s been caught stealing only three time compared to Witt’s five times.
Meanwhile, Shohei Ohtani has been the same offensive threat he’s always been; He leads the NL with his 23hrs and his 3.2 Offensive WAR, thanks to a solid .292/.386/.625 triple slash, good for a 175 wRC+ and 180 OPS+. Ohtani is just a DH for now, so he gets knocked down to 3.1 bWAR/3.3 fWAR. Corbin Carroll is sitting right behind Ohtani in value, with 3.3 fWAR/2.8bWAR. Carroll is hitting .260/.340 /.581 with 19hrs and 10 stolen bases, with a 151 wRC+/152 OPS+. The one knock on Carroll’s game has been being caught stealing four times in his fourteen attempts this season, which is just below the break even point.
Finally, there is one pitcher who really should be in consideration for MVP considering how valuable he’s been this season, and that is the Pirates’ Paul Skenes. Skenes is currently second in the NL with 3.6 Bwar and has been lights out with a 1.88 ERA and a 220 ERA+. He almost certainly won’t win the MVP, but he’s absolutely the front runner for the Cy Young award.