2025 MLB: American League Midseason Award Winners

With the 2025 MLB season at its midpoint, it’s the perfect time to take stock of the American League’s top performers. While there’s still plenty of baseball left to play, a few names have already separated themselves from the pack. From MVP candidates to breakout rookies and dominant arms, here are my picks for the AL’s midseason award winners.

AL MVP: Aaron Judge, OF, New York Yankees

After having 2 of the greatest hitting seasons over the last 3 years, Aaron Judge is tripling down with another Hall of Fame worthy performance. Judge is the runaway favorite for MVP and it’s not even close. Credit to Cal Raleigh for having a career best season, but Judge is putting up historic numbers. Through the midpoint of the season, Judge is leading the league in most batting categories. The most impressive numbers are his astounding 0.360 batting average to go with 33 home runs (2nd in league) and 119 hits. That means almost 30% of his hits are a home run which is scary for opposing pitchers to think about. Judge is currently on pace to break his 62 home run campaign he has in 2022. The Yankees do have a tougher schedule remaining than they’ve played thus far, so it’ll come down to the wire if he can set a new career best. Regardless, his numbers will still be atop the league and earn him a well-deserved 3rd MVP. 

AL CY Young: Tarik Skubal, P, Detroit Tigers

The closest award race in the American League is CY Young with multiple deserving candidates. This year’s pool includes Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, Jacob DeGrom, and Hunter Brown. As of right now, it’s neck and neck primarily between Skubal and Brown with Skubal narrowly edging out Brown l.  Unlike Aaron Judge leading almost every batting category, for pitchers, one guy will lead one category but not lead any in others which makes the choice picking Skubal more difficult. Brown is 9-3 compared to Skubal’s 10-2 when we look at record. Where Brown has Skubal beat is on ERA with a league leading 1.82 compared to Skubal’s 2.02. Where Skubal is able to pull away is strikeouts with 148 on the year. But that’s more impressive is strikeouts per nine innings which is 11.5 and good enough for first in the league. One bad game can change things around, but at pace both are playing, Skubal wins this one. 

AL ROY: Jacob Wilson, OF, “Las Vegas” Athletics

If it weren’t for Aaron Judge’s historic season, rookie Jacob Wilson would be leading the entire major league in batting average. Wilson is putting up a very remarkable .335 rate so far. His other stats are also above average for the league like his 0.847 OPS which is good enough for top 30 in the league. Compared to other rookies, he’s blown their numbers away as this rookie class has not been as strong as we’ve seen in recent years.