NEW YORK — Lou Gehrig‘s name is not appears on 2026 ballot, yet baseball writers are about to revive a question that has trailed the Yankees legend for 92 years.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America names its award finalists Monday, Nov. 2. The AL and NL Most Valuable Player winners follow Nov. 12 on MLB Network.
For the first time in four years, the American League race does not run through the Bronx. Aaron Judge, a three-time AL MVP, played only 66 games after a rib stress fracture.
The front-runner is Houston’s Yordan Alvarez. He won the major league batting title at .316 with 42 home runs and 106 RBIs. Entering August, he was on pace for the first Triple Crown since Miguel Cabrera in 2012.
He fell short. Baltimore’s Pete Alonso edged him with 43 homers and 113 RBIs.
That near miss raises an old Yankee Stadium question. What does a Triple Crown actually guarantee at the ballot box? Gehrig holds the most extreme answer.
A crown that rarely misses a trophy
Most Triple Crown winners were rewarded. Mickey Mantle won the 1956 AL MVP for the Yankees. Jimmie Foxx, Joe Medwick, Frank Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski and Cabrera also won in their crown seasons.
The exceptions finished close. Chuck Klein won the 1933 NL Triple Crown and placed second to Carl Hubbell. Ted Williams won it twice for Boston and placed second both times, to Yankees Joe Gordon in 1942 and Joe DiMaggio in 1947.
One Triple Crown winner never got that close.
Gehrig’s monster season and a fifth-place finish
In 1934, Gehrig hit .363 with 49 home runs and 166 RBIs for the Yankees. He led all of baseball in each category, a full major league Triple Crown.
The voters placed Gehrig fifth in the AL MVP race.
The rest of his line was just as loud. Gehrig led the AL with a .465 on-base percentage, a .706 slugging percentage and 409 total bases, according to Baseball-Reference. He played all 154 games and struck out just 31 times, according to MLB.com.
The award went to Detroit catcher and player-manager Mickey Cochrane, who hit .320 with two home runs and 76 RBIs. He collected 67 of a possible 80 points. Tigers second baseman Charlie Gehringer finished two points back. Yankees ace Lefty Gomez was third and Detroit’s Schoolboy Rowe fourth.
Older references list Gehrig with 165 RBIs. Historians later revised the total to 166 after reviewing box scores, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.
Why the writers leaned toward Detroit
The standings shaped the vote. The Tigers won 101 games and the pennant. The Yankees finished 94-60, seven games back, in Babe Ruth‘s final season in pinstripes.
Cochrane had taken over a Detroit club without a pennant since 1909. Gehringer, who played behind his calls every day, later explained what the catcher meant to that clubhouse.
“When Mickey was managing the Tigers from behind the plate I can’t remember him ever fouling up anything. Seemed like he made snap judgments that always worked out well, especially in ’34 and ’35,” Gehringer said.
Gehrig’s value was quieter. His Yankees catcher summed it up in a line the Hall of Fame still uses to describe him.
“He just went out and did his job every day,” Bill Dickey said.
The Triple Crown snub no one else matches
Gehrig’s finish stands alone. Since the BBWAA began voting on the MVP in 1931, no other Triple Crown winner has placed lower than second.
Gehrig is also the only Triple Crown winner in that span to finish behind his own teammate. Gomez won the pitching Triple Crown with 26 wins, a 2.33 ERA and 158 strikeouts.
The Sporting News, which ran its own selection, did name Gehrig its AL most valuable player for 1934.
A long line of Yankees runner-up finishes
Gehrig’s snub opened a pattern. Several of the best individual seasons in Yankees history have since ended one spot short.
Yankees left-hander Ron Guidry went 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA and a then-franchise-record 248 strikeouts in 1978. He won the Cy Young unanimously but finished second for MVP to Boston’s Jim Rice.
Don Mattingly hit .352 with 238 hits, 31 homers and 113 RBIs in 1986. Roger Clemens beat him, 339 points to 258.
Yankees captain Derek Jeter hit .343 in 2006 and lost to Minnesota’s Justin Morneau by 14 points. Judge hit 52 homers as a rookie in 2017 and finished second to Houston’s Jose Altuve.
Gehrig’s case resurfaces in another MVP week
Gehrig won the AL MVP in 1927 under the old league award format and again in 1936. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1939. The 1934 result never changed.
Judge, the current Yankees captain, has won three of the last four AL MVP awards, including a narrow 2025 vote over Seattle’s Cal Raleigh. His injury-shortened 2026 season leaves him outside the favorite’s role.
Alvarez enters the Nov. 12 announcement as the heavy favorite without the Triple Crown that once looked possible. Gehrig won one 92 years ago and finished fifth.
Finalists will be revealed Monday at 6 p.m. ET on MLB Network.
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