Judge, Ohtani repeat as Hank Aaron Award winners in 2025, despite lower B-T rankings

Winners of the 2025 Hank Aaron Awards are Aaron Judge of the Yankees (American League) and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers (National League).

Both Hank Aaron Award-winners for 2025—Aaron Judge of the Yankees in the American League and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers in the National League—won the honor for top offensive player for the second straight season.

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 ranked 20th among AL batters with 6.5 Box-Toppers points, won the AL Award and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, who ranked 27th among NL batters with 5.5 Box-Toppers points, won the NL Award.

AL finalists Team BTP Rank
George Springer Blue Jays 9.7 1
José Ramírez Guardians 9.5 2
Riley Greene Tigers 9.0 4
Junior Caminero Rays 9.0 5
> Aaron Judge Yankees 6.5 20
Cal Raleigh Mariners 6.0 24
Byron Buxton Twins 5.0 30
Nick Kurtz Athletics 4.5 44
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Blue Jays 4.0 47
Bobby Witt Jr. Royals 2.5 76
NL finalists Team BTP Rank
Kyle Schwarber Phillies 12.0 1
Christian Yelich Brewers 11.2 2
Pete Alonso Mets 7.2 11
Juan Soto Mets 7.0 12
Geraldo Perdomo D-backs 6.5 16
> Shohei Ohtani Dodgers 5.5 27
Trea Turner Phillies 5.5 30
Corbin Carroll D-backs 5.2 35
Kyle Tucker Cubs 4.7 41
Fernando Tatis Jr. Padres 1.0 144
BTP—Box-Toppers points
>—Denotes the league winner

However, neither player led their league’s batters in Box-Toppers points in 2025, though both ranked first in 2024.

While the two players racked up impressive statistics in 2025, including both hitting more than 50 home runs, Judge and Ohtani were comparatively rarely the players who contributed most to their team’s wins. (For more, see previous post: Why Judge, Raleigh, Ohtani don’t appear on Box-Toppers’ 2025 MVP ballots.)

In 2025, Judge earned 6.5 Box-Toppers points, 20th among AL batters and Ohtani earned 5.5 Box-Toppers points, 27th among NL batters.

In 2024, Judge led AL batters with 13.0 Box-Toppers points and Ohtani led NL batters with 11.0 Box-Toppers points. Both players are repeat winners of not only the Hank Aaron Awards in 2024 and 2025, but also their league’s Most Valuable Player Awards in both seasons.

Schwarber, Springer led league batters in Box-Toppers points

Box-Toppers’ top-ranked batters in both leagues were among the finalists for the award:

  • Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies led NL batters with 12.0 Box-Toppers points.

  • George Springer of the Blue Jays led AL batters with 9.7 Box-Toppers points.

The Hank Aaron Award is determined by votes from baseball fans as well as from a panel of Hall of Famers.

Among 20 finalists, only 6 rank among top 10 batters in B-T points

There are 20 finalists for the award, 10 in each league. In the AL, four of the 10 finalists were also among the top 10 AL batters in Box-Toppers points in 2025. In the NL, only two of the top 10 finalists were also among the top 10 NL batters in Box-Toppers points in 2025.

Here are the four AL finalists who also ranked among the top 10 AL batters in Box-Toppers points in 2025:

  • Springer, 9.7 points, first among AL batters, 46th among all players. Springer’s 9.7 points is the lowest total to lead any category (AL and NL batting and pitching) since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.

  • José Ramírez of the Guardians, 9.5 points, second.

  • Riley Greene of the Tigers, 9.0 points, fourth.

  • Junior Caminero of the Rays, 9.0 points, fifth.

Here are the two NL finalists who also ranked among the top 10 NL batters in Box-Toppers points in 2024:

  • Schwarber, 12.0 points, first among NL batters, 24th among all players.

  • Christian Yelich of the Brewers, 11.2 points, second.

Box-Toppers’ choices for 2025 Hank Aaron Awards are Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies, who led NL batters with 12.0 Box-Toppers points and George Springer of the Blue Jays, who led AL batters with 9.7 Box-Toppers points.

Judge, Ohtani often outperformed by teammates in team wins

Neither 2025 Hank Aaron Award winner—Judge nor Ohtani—is even among their league’s top 10 batters in Box-Toppers points in 2025. While they led their leagues’ batters in Box-Toppers points in 2024, both frequently did not win Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in team wins in 2025 because they were beaten by teammates who performed better in games, often by pitchers.

There were four team wins in which Judge had a game score of +3.0 or better, but did not win Player of the Game. If Judge had won Player of the Game honors in those four team wins in which he had a +3.0 game score or better, he would have at least 10.5 Box-Toppers points in 2025, enough to lead AL batters.

Ohtani had five games with a +3.0 Box-Toppers game score or better in which he did not earn Player of the Game honors. If Ohtani earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point in each of those games, he’d have 10.5 points, only enough to rank third among NL batters.

In addition, Ohtani earned only 3.5 of his 5.5 Box-Toppers points as a batter—the other 2.0 came as a starting pitcher. The 3.5 points Ohtani earned solely as a batter would rank 56th among NL batters.

Judge won the AL batting title in 2025 and led all players in slugging percentage and runs scored. His 53 home runs and 114 runs batted in were second among AL batters, behind Cal Raleigh of the Mariners (60 homers and 125 RBIs).

In 2025, Ohtani led the NL in runs scored (146), total bases (380), slugging percentage (.622) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.014). He was second among NL batters in home runs (55) behind Schwarber (56).

About Box-Toppers

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. (No Box-Toppers points are awarded in postseason games.)

Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.

For additional updates, follow Box-Toppers on Bluesky or Twitter (X).

Related