Yankees outfielder Aaron Decide entered rarefied air on Thursday.
He was named AL MVP for the second time, receiving all 30 first-place votes and becoming a member of elite firm.
Per ESPN, Decide turned the third lively Yankees captain to win MVP, following catcher Thurman Munson and first baseman Lou Gehrig.
Decide hit .322 with an MLB-high 58 house runs in 2024. His .458 on-base proportion ranked first, and he drove in 18.9% of the bottom runners he inherited, which ranked eighth in MLB amongst batters with at the very least 350 inherited base runners, one spot forward of NL MVP Shohei Ohtani.
His MVP win would not have appeared doable early within the season. In his first 27 video games, Decide hit .178 with 4 house runs and practically twice as many strikeouts (35) as hits (18).
Decide received the award over his remaining 131 video games, batting .354 with 54 house runs, 131 runs batted in and a .488 on-base proportion.
Gehrig, a two-time MVP, was named Yankees captain in 1935 and received his second award the next season in 1936.
Munson was the Bronx Bombers’ first captain since Gehrig’s demise in 1941. He acquired the dignity in 1976, the identical 12 months he received his solely MVP award whereas hitting .302 and main the Yankees to the World Sequence.
Gehrig was the one one to win the Fall Traditional throughout their MVP season.
The Cincinnati Reds swept Munson’s 1976 Yankees, and Decide’s Yankees misplaced in 5 video games to the Dodgers within the 2024 World Sequence.
Decide was named the sixteenth Yankees captain in franchise historical past in 2022. He was their first captain since Corridor of Fame shortstop Derek Jeter retired in 2014.
