Awards season is now behind us, and we are fully entrenched in the offseason. But, between retrospectives on the 2025 Yankees, and awards voting still relatively fresh on the mind, I was brought down a rabbit
hole of past MVP voting. There are plenty of Yankees who have gotten surprising first-place votes on MVP ballots, and I thought it might be fun to look back on some of them. From forgotten catchers to fan-favorites, plenty of players not named Judge or Rodriguez have gotten love on the year-end ballots over the last half-century.
2020 – DJ LeMahieu
After signing a low stakes deal with the Yankees and a breakout 2019 season in New York, DJ LeMahieu turned it up even more in 2020. It’s a shame the season was only 60 games, because his 177 wRC+ was tops in the Junior Circuit, and he had already hit 10 homers in the brief season, who knows what kind of damage he could have done in a typical season. His tenure in the Bronx may have finished poorly, but he’ll always have those fantastic first two seasons.
2011 – Curtis Granderson
After a good first season with the Yankees, the Grandy Man broke out in a major way for the 2011 season. After only reaching 30 homers once in his career up to that point, the beloved outfielder deposited 41 of ‘em that year, posting a career-best offensive season, making his second All-Star team, and winning his lone Silver Slugger. It was an odd MVP year, with Justin Verlander winning with 13 first-place votes, and five others getting their name atop voters ballots (including Michael Young (?)). Nonetheless, Granderson got some real love for what was a terrific run in New York.
2004 – Gary Sheffield
This one is, of course, unsurprising on its own, as Sheffield is an all-time great talent. He did this, however, in his first season with the Yankees, at age-35. Despite the arrival of Alex Rodriguez being the major story going into ‘04, it was the other future 500 homer club member that got five first place votes for the award. The slugger’s seventh 30-homer season (36) netted him his fifth top-10 finish in MVP voting, each of which happened with five different teams. Although only lasting two seasons, Sheffield’s time in pinstripes was very good, and the voters clearly thought he was deserving of serious MVP consideration.
2003 – Jorge Posada
This was new information to me, upon doing the research for this post. Posada is among the best offensive catchers of his generation (and deserved more HOF consideration), but he also received legitimate MVP looks for his stellar ’03 season. In his lone 30-homer campaign, Posada put up an impressive 145 wRC+ and 6.0 fWAR behind the plate. It was a very odd voting year, with Alex Rodriguez’s stellar year in Texas just barely netting the award in a season that saw ten different players get first place votes, including one Shannon Stewart. Posada got some love too, and considering how good his career was behind the plate, it’s nice that his five first-place votes will always be there as a reminder.
1980 – Rick Cerone
I love when the depth of baseball history shows itself to me. I feel pretty confident in my memory and awareness of many baseball players, but I will be honest here, I can’t say with certainty that I knew who Rick Cerone was before this was brought to my attention. But, he was brought to the Yankees in the wake of Thurman Munson’s tragic passing, and did a nice job in his first season with them, posting a career best .753 OPS behind the plate. Cerone only played in 100 games in four seasons during his career, so this was certainly a high-water mark for the backstop. Although it was only a single first-place vote, it is a little silly, considering that George Brett had him beat in all three triple-slash stats by well over 100 points.
1977 – Four vote-getters, no winners
In ‘77, four different Yankees received first-place MVP votes: Graig Nettles, Thurman Munson, Sparky Lyle, and Reggie Jackson. Minnesota’s Rod Carew very deservingly won the award, but the Yankees clearly got plenty of love. Nettles’ career-high in homers, Lyle’s 2.17 ERA, a valiant repeat attempt from Munson, and one of Jackson’s better seasons were all represented in some first-place slots.
1976 – Mickey Rivers
This was the season that Munson won his MVP award, but it might not be common knowledge that teammate Mickey Rivers received a first-place vote as well. In his first season with the Yanks, Rivers’ 122 OPS+ was a career-best, though his numbers look fairly pedestrian on the surface. It was a career-year for the center fielder, which included 43 stolen bases, but his placement here likely stands as a relic of outdated priorities among the award voting population.
