MLB.com has released its annual Top 100 Players Right Now list and it's a huge thrill for all of the baseball players honored. But because it's a list it means there's controversy. Michael Kay, a staple of New York Yankees broadcasts for years, shared his disbelief that Shohei Ohtani was ranked No. 1 over Aaron Judge during his radio show Friday.
“On what planet can you say that Ohtani is better than Judge?" Kay wondered. "I don’t understand it. Are you projecting in 2025 that you think Ohtani is going to go back to being a dominant pitcher?”
Kay came to the table with a thorough study of offensive stats, which tend to favor Judge. But Ohtani did become the first 50-50 club member in baseball history and has the capacity to be one of the game's best pitchers when healthy.
On one hand it could be a situation where MLB.com got to the top of the list and had to make a call between two incredible players. On the other it could be that pesky and very real anti-Yankees bias that exists.
“I just think, and I hate to admit it, that there is an anti-Yankee bias,” Kay said. "And I think everyone in Major League Baseball is absolutely in awe at the skills sets exhibited by Ohtani. And they should be — he’s one of the best baseball players ever. And so is Judge. So when they’re that close, you have to look at the statistics … Judge’s statistics are far superior to Ohtani’s."
This is why these lists are always tough. Top Players Right Now could not be clearer and yet the results could mean that they're forecasting a stellar return ot the mound for Ohtani. Or, believe it or not, that's he's a better player than Judge even without doing double duty.
One thing we can perhaps agree on is that on a ranking of the best players of a sport in the world, there is never tas meaningful of a gulf between No. 1 and No. 2 as people like to think. It's a lesson that could have been learned among the neverending LeBron James-Michael Jordan debates, but here we are again.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Michael Kay: 'On What Planet Can You Say That Ohtani is Better Than Judge?'.
