The American League MVP race has been dominated by two names this entire decade. No one besides\u00a0Aaron Judge\u00a0or\u00a0Shohei Ohtani\u00a0has won AL MVP honors since\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Abreu\u00a0in the shortened 2020 season. In fact, only one other player —\u00a0Cal Raleigh\u00a0last year — even received a first-place vote from 2021-25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the 2026 race is shaping up to look very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judge is going to be out quite a while with a\u00a0stress fracture in one of his ribs, which will likely prevent him from winning his third straight AL MVP Award (and fourth overall). Ohtani, meanwhile, moved over to the NL after the 2023 campaign, so the door is wide open for someone new to take home the hardware in the AL this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who\u2019s it going to be? Looking at the contenders, a clear top four has emerged, but there are some other potential candidates to consider as well. Here\u2019s a breakdown of the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All stats below are through Thursday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The favorite:\u00a0Yordan Alvarez<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alvarez was\u00a0arguably the frontrunner\u00a0even before Judge went down. The Astros slugger not only leads all MLB qualifiers with a 1.066 OPS but also has made the\u00a0Triple Crown a realistic possibility\u00a0with 22 homers (first in the AL), 48 RBIs (tied for third) and a .316 batting average (second).<\/p>\n\n\n\n It would be a fitting coronation for Alvarez, who has been MLB\u2019s\u00a0second-best hitter\u00a0by\u00a0wRC+\u00a0(165) since his 2019 debut, behind only Judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WAR leader:\u00a0Bobby Witt Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A true five-tool superstar, Witt is having another strong season after finishing second in the AL MVP race in 2024 and fourth last year. The Royals shortstop leads the AL with 3.8 WAR (per FanGraphs), combining a 119 wRC+ with elite defense and baserunning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Power production is the biggest variable for Witt, who has two 30-homer seasons under his belt but fell seven dingers short of the mark last season and is on pace to do so again. If he surges in that department, voters could gravitate toward his brand of all-around production over Alvarez — assuming the Houston DH doesn\u2019t end up capturing the Triple Crown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So young, so good:\u00a0Nick Kurtz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kurtz reached the big leagues less than a year after being taken fourth overall in the 2024 MLB Draft and went on to deliver one of the\u00a0greatest debut seasons\u00a0baseball has seen. If there were any doubts about his ability to replicate that performance, he\u2019s put them to rest. The Athletics first baseman has reached base at an MLB-leading .438 clip in 2026, and while he took some time to find his power stroke over the first two months, he\u2019s fully locked in now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kurtz has homered seven times in his past 12 games and has outperformed everyone — Alvarez included — with a\u00a0184 wRC+ since April 12. The 23-year-old would be one of the youngest MVP winners in history if he can pull it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Yankees\u2019\u00a0other<\/em>\u00a0star slugger:\u00a0Ben Rice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Yankees\u2019 most productive hitter this season actually isn\u2019t their three-time MVP. It\u2019s Rice, who has erupted for 18 homers, 45 RBIs and a 1.005 OPS that ranks second behind Alvarez among MLB qualifiers. The standings are also worth keeping an eye on — while the Astros, Royals and A\u2019s are all under .500, the Yankees are mere percentage points behind the Rays for the AL\u2019s best record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If Rice keeps it up and the Bronx Bombers finish as the AL\u2019s top team even with Judge missing so much time, it\u2019s certainly possible that the first baseman could take home AL MVP honors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Always in the mix:\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez,\u00a0Julio Rodr\u00edguez<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As we look around at some others who could realistically challenge for the hardware, it makes sense to start with Ram\u00edrez, perhaps the\u00a0best player never to win an MVP. The Guardians third baseman has received MVP votes in nine of the past 10 seasons, finishing as a finalist four times and logging three other top-six finishes. With 10 homers and a .765 OPS, Ram\u00edrez hasn\u2019t played up to his typical standard at the plate this year, but he\u2019s on pace for a career high in steals (55) and is having a superb defensive season at the hot corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rodr\u00edguez could also work his way into the conversation. The Mariners center fielder is a notorious slow starter, but he finished among the top seven in AL MVP voting in three of his first four seasons nonetheless. J-Rod\u2019s stat line also looks stronger than it usually does at this time of year\u00a0thanks to a monster May, so if he avoids a dropoff in June and follows his typical second-half script, it could be a career year for the 25-year-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Acknowledge the Rays:\u00a0Yandy D\u00edaz,\u00a0Junior Caminero<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The run-differential gap between the Yankees (+103) and Rays (+12) suggests a correction is coming in the AL East standings. But last year\u2019s Blue Jays heard the same thing and ended up capturing both the division crown and the AL\u2019s top seed. No one should be discounting Tampa Bay\u2019s chances of doing the same in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the Rays do hold on, both D\u00edaz and Caminero could find themselves in the thick of the race. D\u00edaz has never had a 30-homer season and probably isn’t going to get there this year, but he\u2019s been the AL\u2019s fourth-best hitter by wRC+ (160) behind Alvarez, Rice and Kurtz in 2026, notching an AL-best .331 average with a .940 OPS. Caminero isn\u2019t far behind — he\u2019s tied for eighth in the league with a 141 wRC+, one year after producing 45 homers in his age-21 campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trade Deadline wild card:\u00a0Byron Buxton<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Buxton\u2019s age and injury history, not to mention the Twins\u2019 31-39 record, make him an MVP long shot. But what if the 32-year-old agrees to waive his no-trade clause, goes to a contender before the Deadline and delivers MVP-caliber numbers down the stretch?\u00a0An MVP win like that has never happened before, but there’s a first time for everything. Buxton has already crushed 20 homers for Minnesota this season and ranks fourth among AL qualifiers with a .559 slugging percentage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The American League MVP race has been dominated by two names this entire decade. No one besides\u00a0Aaron Judge\u00a0or\u00a0Shohei Ohtani\u00a0has won AL MVP honors since\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Abreu\u00a0in the shortened 2020 season. In fact, only one other player —\u00a0Cal Raleigh\u00a0last year — even received a first-place vote from 2021-25. But the 2026 race is shaping up to look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-416164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416165,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416164\/revisions\/416165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}THE BIG FOUR<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
OTHER POTENTIAL CANDIDATES<\/h3>\n\n\n\n