Yankees: Aaron Judge and Luis Severino named MLB award finalists

On Monday, the BBWAA announced the three finalists for each of baseball’s most prestigious categories. To no surprise, two members of the Yankees young core were named.

It’s safe to say that the two most impressive Yankees of the 2017 season were Aaron Judge and Luis Severino.

Leading by example, Judge buoyed the Yanks’ offensive barrage on his way to videogame-like numbers (more on that in a bit).

For a guy that went from barely making the 25-man roster out of spring training, to garnering votes for both AL Rookie of the Year and MVP is absolutely historic. Fred Lynn and Ichiro Suzuki are the only two players to ever win both awards in the same season.

The race for the AL MVP will be a tight one with World Series champion Jose Altuve giving Judge a real run for his money. Luckily, postseason stats don’t count. Jose Ramirez of the Indians is also nominated.

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In any other season, Andrew Benintendi of the Red Sox and Trey Mancini of the Orioles would be worthy candidates for rookie accolades. But not in 2017, so the pair has zero chance.

Honestly, it’s hard to believe that Judge struck out 208 times in 155 games and still managed to hit for a .284 average.

Yet when your on-base percentage is .422 and slugging, .627 — thanks to 52 long balls, 114 RBI and a league-leading 127 walks, it all begins to make sense.

As if Judge wasn’t having the best year ever for a guy still five months shy of his 26th birthday, on Monday, he was also unveiled as cover star of ‘MLB The Show 18’ for the PlayStation 4.

The first Yankee to ever appear on the cover of long-running hit series, Judge follows Ken Griffey Jr. as the face of the franchise.

Funny enough, as an avid player of the game, I was shocked to discover Judge’s overall rating in ‘MLB The Show 17’ (to begin the season) was a dismal 68. Following a few months of offensive explosions and a number of roster updates, and the good folks at SIE San Diego Studios boosted him to an 88 overall. Now that’s more like it.

Then there’s Luis Severino. Talk about a story of redemption!

Sevvy went from a stellar debut in 2015 to pitching in Triple-A in ’16, to all of a sudden being listed as a Cy Young finalist alongside the likes of Chris Sale of the Red Sox and Corey Kluber of the Indians.

Beating out two of the games best shooters won’t be an easy task, but at just 23-years-old, it’s highly probable this will not be the last time Severino’s name is on such a list.

Next: Mike Moustakas at third for the Yankees?

A 14-6 record, 2.98 ERA, 1.040 WHIP and 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings were good enough to overtake Masahiro Tanaka as the new staff ace of the Yankee, and the belief that the second-coming of Pedro Martinez wears pinstripes.