Tim Benz: Aaron Judge is at the center of MLB's 2 hottest debates — but answers are easy in both cases

New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is at the center of baseball’s two hottest debates right now.

And the answers are clear. They are: “yes” and “no.”

Yes, he is the 2022 American League Most Valuable Player. No, he is not the all-time single-season Major League home run champion. That’s still Barry Bonds’ claim.

No matter how much people want to contextualize, over-intellectualize or virtue signal.

Let’s start with the first issue. Judge is the AL MVP.

To me, the debate is open and shut. Yes, Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani has been fabulous as both a hitter and a pitcher. Ohtani is 15-8 with a 2.35 ERA. He flirted with a no-hitter Thursday before losing it in the eighth inning as his club beat the Oakland A’s 4-2.

He’s tied for third in the American League in wins. His 213 strikeouts put him third in the AL. His ERA of 2.35 ranks fourth.

Those pitching stats go along with 34 home runs, a .275 batting average, an OPS of .888 plus 94 RBI. He became the first player in AL or NL history with 30 homers at the plate and 200 strikeouts on the mound in a season.

In just about any other year, I’d call him the MVP.

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But I wouldn’t have done so in 1961 when Roger Maris hit 61 home runs to set the MLB record for the pennant-winning Yankees. I wouldn’t this year when Judge has hit 61 for the pennant-winning Yankees either. And Judge will probably hit a few more before this season is over to set a new American League record.

It’s not just about the long ball, though. If it was, I may still back Ohtani. But in 2022, Judge also leads the AL in OPS (1.121), slugging percentage (.696), on-base percentage (.425), walks (106), runs (130), RBI (130), total bases (384) and extra-base hits (89). Judge is also second in batting average at .313, behind Luis Arraez of the Minnesota Twins (.315).

So, forget the “Triple Crown.” If Judge can catch Arraez, that’s … what … the “Dectuple Crown”?

Ohtani and Judge are both doing historic things. Yet Judge is turning in one of the greatest offensive seasons of all time. And the fact of Ohtani doing his damage for an 86-loss Angels franchise versus Judge leading a 96-win Yankees team matters.

That’s not to say a great player on a bad team can’t win an MVP. But when it comes to tiebreakers, in my book, I put value on the “valuable” part of Most Valuable Player.

As far as considering Judge the all-time MLB single-season home run king, if he gets to 62, I can’t go there.

I get it. Judge is easy to root for, and he is (presumed to be) performing without the aid of steroids. Meanwhile, when Barry Bonds hit 73 homers in 2001, he was (presumed to be) on steroids. The same thing for Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa when they soared past 61 homers multiple times in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

So, if you want to put an asterisk on their accomplishments and, in your own head, consider Judge to be the all-time record holder, you go right ahead.

I’m not going to do that, and MLB shouldn’t either. MLB and the MLBPA first agreed to a testing program in 2002. They didn’t begin survey testing until 2003. Penalties weren’t implemented until 2004.

Even if we assume Bonds was taking performance-enhancing drugs, they weren’t illegal by MLB rules at the time. Granted, they may have been illegal for him to possess or acquire without a necessary prescription from a properly licensed physician. But breaking the law and violating MLB rules are different arguments.

If we are going to apply that retroactive morality to Bonds, are we going to do it for any record set by a player that may have taken cocaine? Or popped an amphetamine? Or one that may have consumed alcohol during prohibition? It’s the same concept.

In the Twitter era of sports media, two things tend to make for lots of likes and retweets.

• Lick your finger. Stick it into the online breeze. See which way the wind is blowing. And craft an opinion the masses will applaud.

• It never hurts if that opinion is deemed to be advancing a cause that is somehow anti-establishment. That makes you look like you are high-minded and that you care a lot.

Both debates about Judge seem to fall into that vortex of sports opinion-making — and Lord knows there is no greater currency than social media affirmation.

As a result, you see and hear a lot of people advancing the notion of Judge being the “real” home run king because he appears to be doing it cleanly and comes off as a quality, likable person. So, just give Judge the mythical home run title and give Bonds an asterisk because, well, coming within a dozen home runs is close enough, I guess.

But at the same time, Judge is the most popular player on the most popular team in baseball, and there is nothing more establishment than the Yankees. Plus, he has been the odds-on favorite to win the award for months, and Ohtani is a “victim” of playing most of his games for a crummy team at 10 p.m. on the east coast. So, let’s advance that poor guy’s case and make ourselves feel better about our own opinion in the process.

Nah. Don’t overcomplicate it. Judge is the MVP, and — like it or not — Bonds will still be the home run king. The numbers say so.

In both cases.