Dodgers first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger and Angels outfielder Mike Trout were named the Most Valuable Players of their respective leagues, as announced by the Baseball Writers Association Of America. Full breakdowns of both votes are available on the BBWAA website (National League, American League).
Bellinger received 19 of 30 first-place votes. Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich made a spirited defense of his 2018 MVP Award by finishing second in the balloting, picking up 10 first-place votes and 18 seconds. Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon received the final first-place vote, and his third-place spot in the balloting represents his highest finish in the MVP race following a fifth-place showing in 2014 and a sixth-place result in 2017.
The NL MVP Award adds to an already stuffed trophy case for Bellinger over his three MLB seasons, as the 24-year-old also won Rookie Of The Year honors in 2017, has two All-Star appearances to his name, and won his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards earlier this fall. Bellinger hit .305/.406/.629 over 661 PA for the Dodgers, hitting 47 homers and leading all players in bWAR (9.0), while tying for third in fWAR (7.8) with Yelich.
It was expected to be a tight vote between Bellinger and Yelich, with Yelich having the slightly superior hitting numbers despite being limited to 580 PA and 130 games due to recurring back soreness throughout the year, and a fractured kneecap that ended his season on September 10. That late injury could have swung the vote in Bellinger’s favor, and the Dodgers star was also aided by a superlative defensive performance. Bellinger had a cumulative 22 Defensive Runs Saved, +13.7 UZR/150, and +7 Outs Above Average as an outfielder, mostly working in right field but also playing 170 2/3 above-average innings in center. Bellinger also saw some time at first base, adding to his versatility and making him the most dangerous of the Dodgers’ several multi-position weapons.
Trout was himself hampered by a late-season injury, as he didn’t play after September 7 due to a foot injury that required minor surgery. Still, that didn’t stop the Angels superstar from winning the third AL MVP Award of what is already one of the great careers in baseball history. Trout hit a career-best 45 homers while also batting .291/.438/.645 over 600 PA — his on-base percentage led the majors, while his slugging percentage and OPS led the American League. Trout also sat atop the fWAR leaderboard (8.6) while finishing third in bWAR (8.3).
It was a narrow victory for Trout over Astros infielder Alex Bregman, as the two players finished in the top two spots on all 30 ballots, with Trout holding the 17-13 edge in first-place votes. Bregman supporters undoubtedly pointed to the fact that Bregman hit .296/.423/.592 with 41 homers and finished second in both fWAR (8.5) and bWAR (8.4), while also playing in 156 games for a first-place team while Trout’s Angels again missed the postseason. The American League West had a clean sweep on the top three, as Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien finished third in the balloting (22 third-place votes).
The award continues Trout’s astonishing track record in AL MVP voting, as he now has three wins, four runners-up, and a fourth place (in an injury-shortened 2017) over his eight full seasons as a Major League player. Trout becomes just the tenth player in MLB history to win at least three MVP Awards, and since he is showing no signs of slowing down at age 28, he has to be considered a threat to catch or surpass the only player with four or more MVP trophies — seven-time NL MVP Barry Bonds.
Well deserved.
Yelich got robbed
Well deserved. Trout crushed balls without a video camera telling him what’s coming.
Too soon to tell…
Trout hit 212/308/515 against Houston.
Bregman hit 313/471/731 against the Angels.
The Angels and Astros pitchers did everything possible to give Bregman the MVP
hmm facing Verlander cole…or suarez and Barria … anyone is an MVP against the Halos
Lol.
What they did against each other’s pitching staff has little bearing
Maybe to you. But it may have to some voters. How do you know?
Everyone and every team hit .313 against the Angels. Silly argument.
what’s your proof that he doesn’t? or that anyone else doesn’t?
Well color me shocked
Trout is great and well deserving. That said, I don’t how you give “Most Valuable Player” recognition to someone on 72-win 4th place team. The league should adopt a Player of the Year” award to recognize overall individual excellence.
Victoria that’s for college.
There’s already an award for overall individual excellence.
It’s called MVP.
Wrong. Most valuable (to your team) is not the same as best player.
ChiSox – That is an old and tired debate. The MVP award is for individual performance regardless of your team’s results. Trout winning proves that the BBWAA feels the same way.
I’m tired of people ignoring the English language, and these arbitrary interpretations every damn year. You want the best player getting recognition, change the name or add another award.
Trout *is* the most valuable player to his team. Imagine how much worse the Angels would be without him.
ChiSox – call the award whatever you want to make you feel better. It won’t change the purpose of the award, which is to recognize individual player performance. Team results are irrelevant. Consider the reverse – you wouldn’t disqualify the best team in baseball from the WS just because they had the worst player on the team. With the adversity and injuries the Angels suffered through this season, you could attribute the fact that they even got to 72 wins to Trout’s performance. But again, team results are irrelevant for this award. Try to let that sink in.
Basically it’s two voters, It was close. Trout was the better player, Bregman had more Plate Appearances.
And the Astros stole signs. So, no to Bregs.
They would be a 60 win team without Trout.
Then how do you give Cody Bellinger an MVP award over Rendon? I personally think Rendon should’ve got the MVP award. He’s got a ring to show how valuable he was to that team!
Reg season
Balk – the WS ring represents the team’s performance. The MVP is an individual performance award.
I agree, but answer me this, would the nationals have won the World Series without Rendon? Rendon to me was the better player then Bellinger. But what does that matter, my vote doesn’t count. Lol
One player doesn’t make a team successful or unsuccessful. A WS win is a team effort. Of course Rendon contributed but who knows if they would have won without him. I say yes. Their rotation was amazing. I think that’s the difference.
Trout won that too. The sporting news has that award.
Andre Dawson won MVP with the last place Cubs. Your argument is now invalid.
Trout is the Goat.
I don’t know how trout beat Bergman. Both good but Bergman was better.
Trout was better. He just had fewer plate appearances. The plate appearances made it close. I doubt there is much disagreement on that. .
Plus he didn’t benefit from stolen signs.
Shampoo is better!!
Idiots abound! Well, no, but dynamite drop? Pretty sure… Guy defends stealing signs. Must be a Sox fan.
Nooo… conditioner is better!!
Not sure about that. Trout had just as good stats missing 3 weeks. IMO he was just as good if not better with less at bats.
Bregman is a cheater and Trout isn’t. Simple as that.
Maybe because Bergman knew what pictures were coming
“If the trash can bangs, here comes a picture of a cat.”
Bregman deserved AL MVP. Trout quit on the season three weeks early and the Angels won only 72 games – where’s the heart? By that same measure (Trout played only four more games than Yelich), Yelich should have beat out Bellinger in the NL.
Trout wins despite missing time but Yelich doesnt? not sure about that one, but deserved wins nonetheless.
Flip on coin on both. It could and maybe should have been dual MVPs. You flip voters, and it’s possible Yelich and Bregman are the winners.
At hitting homeruns with more at bats?
Except that Bregman cheated…
Nothin’ to see here folks.
Trout deserved it. It’s an individual award and no one was better than Trout. Hopefully the Angels can surround him with a better team in 2020.
The Mets passed on Bellinger in order to draft L.J. Mazzilli . I’ll let that sink in on everyone for awhile.
Every team passed on him multiple times including the Dodgers.
The Mets do this with the Dodgers. Seager passed for Cencchini and then they just gave them Turner by releasing him.
11 Teams passed up Trout. Let’s that sink in deeper.
Even the Angels passed up Trout once before they picked him up. Randal Grichuk was their first in the draft.
By the way, BIG shoutout to the Yankees for signing Mark Teixiera and giving the Angels a second first round pick.
They did it on purpose to get back at his agent. They knew they were going to get him so what does it matter?
21 teams passed on Trout and 2 teams passed on him twice. (Nats & DBacks)
It’s baseball. Have fun exhausting yourself doing this exercise with almost any good player.
So trout wins MVP cause he has superior numbers even with an injury-shortened season, While Yelich who gets hurt at the same time with superior numbers loses? Where’s the logic in that. You can’t give it to trout cause he has better numbers regardless of fewer games then not give it to yelich cause he played less games while still having better numbers??
Trout’s numbers were superior to Bregman.s and he wasn’t a cheater. Bellinger’s numbers were superior to Yelich. Who’s to say if he could have closed that gap if he was on the field for another 30 games. But he didn’t. Defense was also a pretty big difference maker between Bellinger and Yelich.
Bellingers numbers weren’t superior to yelich?? Bellinger led in runs rbi and a tiny lead in homeruns, every over stat Yelich leads him in OBP, Slug,OPS,stolen bases, batting average?
And Y elich’s team was a lot better than Trout’s. Yelich kept the Brewers in contention. Trout’s team was out of it July
It’s not about how your team does. He is one of 25 players on the roster. To make him carry the win/loss for the entire team is an unfair statement.
@ Eric Lord
Yelich had a much better supporting cast than Trout. That’s not Trout’s fault. You don’t penalize Trout for being on a lousy team. Without Trout, the Angels would have won far fewer games. Trout’s the best player. End of discussion.
It not a statistical award. It’s who the writers thought was the most valuable player. Just like the Gold Glove Award is not a statistical award.
They vote it like a statistical award because Trout stats had little value to his team. He was great, but his team was still awful. There were several players who stats had a far bigger impact on their team than Trout’s.
How do you know that his team wouldn’t have won 30 games without him? Trout’s WAR demonstrates that he was incredibly valuable. He was valuable. His team sucked. He can’t be penalized because his team sucked. That has never been a factor in the MVP and it never should be. It should not be limited to players who happen to have great supporting casts… That would be warped and twisted. How often would a Blue Jay win then??? Huh?
Exactly. He was the best player on the field no matter what team he would have played for.
It’s just different voters. In the AL, two voters were the difference. Otherwise it’s a coin flip. I don’t have much respect for the writers who voted for Rendon, but between Yellich and Bellanger, it was a coin flip.
Because defensive ability counts towards value too?
Trout is not the MVP. He had an outstanding season. I don’t deny that, but there is a difference between outstanding & valuable. Having the best stats doesn’t necessarily make you the MVP. The Angels finished 35 games out of 1st place & 24 games out of a wild card spot. They weren’t out of it by the trade deadline. That’s not very valuable. The Angels were bad with Trout & they’d be bad without him. It is the most valuable player, not the most outstanding
I can say with confidence that Mike Trout is the greatest baseball player of all time. I would entertain the argument that Babe Ruth is, but I’m taking Trout and not because I’m from South Jersey.
Just for fun, top 10 all-time:
1. Trout
2. Ruth
3. Mays
4. Mantle
5. Williams
6. Clemente
7. Musial
8. Griffey Jr.
9. Cobb
10. Bonds/A.Rod
Honorable mention:
Gehrig
Aaron
Hornsby
Wagner
Schmidt
I would put Josh Gibson on this list too.
Position players only?
In my opinion, the top 20-25 are all position players. Then you can start sprinkling in a Bob Gibson, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Sandy Koufax, Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Clayton Kershaw & Roy Halladay.
I love this game.
Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver not good enough for your list?
Meh… Bo Jackson is the GOAT.
Congratulations guys!
Trout should have 5 mvps in all honesty. Got robbed because the game only looks at offense.
Actually… Six. In my opinion, this was the closet contest between those other six.
And that only because cheating brought Bregman closer…
I bet Trout would trade two MVP’s for one WS Ring !
Not one that was stolen! That’s one that will live in infamy. Call ’em the Black Stros
Frozen two is coming out soon. So let me give you some advice. Let it go. Let baseball dole out the punishment.
I will never let it go. That WS “victory” is toast. That “dynasty” is toast. You want to turn your back on that, go ahead. As a fan of the sport for five decades, I sure as hell won’t. Keep your advice…and go watch Frozen two yourself. Go and pretend…
Trout winning certainly saves MLB from the embarrassment of Bregman winning the award and bringing a trashcan and a camera to the press conference. Bregman, Springer( a Silver Slugger maybe for him checking out where the bullpen hands are), and Altuve such a sad group of players which Beltran, Cora and Hinch knew were unable to compete fairly.
Well said.
While I generally dislike our crosstown rivals, Bellinger had a great year on both sides of the ball. I thought his defense was superior enough to Yellich’s to warrant an MVP.
Just to let you know…….
In eight seasons…..
Mike Trout never won a HR Title…..Never lead the league in hits or batting average..
Lead the league one time in stolen bases……one time in RBI’s……..
Was in a playoff series one time….1-12….hit was a HR
In my book, he is very good…..but not ranked in the top 15 of all time players !
Take a look at WAR pal. All the stats you cite are lesser stats…
Im not normally one to complain that the mvp needs to be on a winning team or trouts shouldn’t get them cause his team is trash, but what’s the point of WAR If it doesn’t matter? Trout is worth 9+wins above replacement so what good did that do for the Angels?
Seriously? I thought we were well beyond that kind of logic.
True that but how many times has he led his league in war, obp,slugging, ops, wrcplus. Etc. He def is already top ten all time. 3 mvp’s, 3-4 2nd place and a fourth place. Never finished below 4th place in any full season.
Wow, so every player who is not in the ‘top 15 of all time players’ is merely ‘very good’. Good grief.
At least Mike Trout’s not a cheater Maybe Bergman knew what pictures were coming
Lack of a camera and a garbage pail code banging system on the road cost Bregman the MVP
Very well said.
Bregman actually was much better on the road….
You think it cost Bergman the MVP how come Barry Bonds is not a Hall of Famer?
when Cole goes to Angels, they’ll have a chance to win a world series. Astros will have to give up draft picks after all this hooplah.. I want to see Trout make the playoffs. he’s a once in a generation player.
Agreed, but it’s gonna take more than just Cole. That team needs help.
trout 1/12 in playoffs
greatest player in your generation pls
Small sample size to judge someone off of. You can measure trouts 1st sevens up to who you think is this generations greatest player is and trout will have been better.
Seasons
Bregman wasn’t even the MVP of his own team. Sorry, Justin Verlander is the leader and MVP of the Astros. Houston depends more on him and his success.
Would like to see Trout actually play meaningful games in September. Goes to show how wasted he is by his organization.
No debate in the NL.
Also, Verlander didn’t cheat, as far as we know. Bregman did.
Astro fans should probably stop whining about Bregman not getting it
Just saying
This comment thread is more repetitive then usual…some people need opinions that don’t sound like a broken record.
If it weren’t for Mo I’d have zero idea Bregman plays on the Astros
Every fifth comment says Bregman should’ve won. That invites the arguments why Trout was the right choice, including the fact that the Stros cheated. Hence the repetition.
Mike, we love you. Just don’t go out with the newly hired LaRussa for drinks!!
AL Vote got rigged. Mike Trout was absent for a part of the season, so his full potential wasn’t revealed.
NL Vote, on the other hand, made sense.
You think the Voting is rigged Do you think Russia had anything to do with the MVP voting
The definition of valuable is of great worth or worth lots of money. Trout is worth the most money based on his record contract and better stats.
You heard first here, the 2020 American League MVP will be Yoan Moncada!
There’s a reason my name is what it is. I met Trout during his call up year. I talked to him for a long time before I talked to Howie Kendrick(unbelievably kind human being.)
He was before his opening day an unbelievable individual and he deserves more of the praise thats been given him.
He’s the Bonds without steroids.
Love you Kid Fish. You and KING(tim salmon) Fish will forever be remembered by every Angels fan forever. MIKE TROUT THE GOAT
MLBTR community lets make this Unambiguous statement Mike Trout is GOAT.
Perhaps gamblers were aware, or made aware by an unknown party, that the Astros were cheating. over the last 3 years, the house odds per game, per series, per season would improve.over their normal projections. What is that worth to the oddsmakers and a possible unknown source?
What if the betting line for MVP odds were tainted by knowledge of on-going cheating?
An insane amount of money involved over 3 years. What if someone told a specific Astro player to strike out, make an error or 2, or whatever at a time in the game?
It is a big deal.
how “valuable” can a player be on a 72 win team? great player? obviously but most “valuable ” ? not on a bad team…they simply need to change name of award to “best player”
On the flip side who would you take to start your team today. You would take trout just like the vast majority of people would. So how can Bregman be more valuable if you would take trout over him. Valuable is a very subjective word I guess.
How is this such a hard concept for you people to grasp. They won 72 games with him. Without him, they’re an all time bad team and probably win 62-65 games. That’s how valuable he is. His supporting cast does not in any way affect how valuable he was to the team. So bizarre that you people can’t understand such a simple concept.
Rendon should have won NL MVP. Bellinger sucked in the playoffs again while rendon helped his team win the world series
Reg season
“Mike trout maybe baseballs best player,
but being old school
and knowing the game well,
I ask: how can a team with a 72 wins
and 90 losses have an MVP
Yes without Mr Trout, the Angels might have lost 110 games
but MVP? has baseball gone this far astray”
And so I no the MVP Award should have gone to Marcus Semien
who carried the Oakland A’s to the wild card playoff game
or perhaps to Dj LeMahieu, The Machine’ for his heroics in carrying the Yankees
to the American League Championship Series
The baseball writers have no business being in the voting
It is the team managers who should decide
as they should in the forthcoming hall of fame voting,
for if it was so, Bernie Williams, Albert Belle,Dick Allen, and other Feared Hitters would already have been inducted
and so I suggest: A new building should be built in Cooperstown, for those despicable politically correct Writers
and named BASEBALLS HALL OF SHAME”
The writers should no longer have a vote for the MVP or the Hall of Fame. They are privileged to have such a responsibility and they have abused it. Take them away.
Since you are old school you realize Andre Dawson won mvp on a last place team. Imagine that.
LOL, the MLB managers probably would have voted Trout MVP in on a greater margin.
For everyone here who is having a hard time understanding the purpose of the MVP award:
“The Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is an annual Major League Baseball (MLB) award given to one outstanding player in the American League and one in the National League. Since 1931, it has been awarded by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA).”
Agree or disagree, the award is not contingent on the player’s team result.
That will be very difficult for people to grasp that, lol.
Right, and it also isn’t contingent on any given stat, or on offensive production alone. The player’s contributions to his team are considered as a complete package.
Right BlueSky – that’s why Trout and Bellinger won. They were perceived as the best by those voting. I agree with their choices.
Most of you probably didn’t watch Angel games this season. Tyler Skaggs’ death absolutely devastated this team. Trout took the lead in addressing the media and wore his emotions on his sleeve. He showed leadership hes never showed fans nor the media before. This team was 5 games above .500 at all star break and had momentum. Trout was carrying tg his team. Then they lost a 16 inning game against the Orioles and it was like they hit an emotional wall..and it crumbled. After watching every game this Halo season, I feel this was Trouts most impressive performance given everything he brought to his team.
Eff ewe L.A haterzz!! I’m going to the beach to look at bazoombaaz and celebrate. Have fun freezing to death.