The MVP Selections Are Out And Nobody Bats A Thousand

Hey, nobody bats a thousand. Cody Bellinger had an MVP-worthy season in 2019, but Christian Yelich was the Most Valuable Player in the National League. Wasn’t even really close, either. Here’s what I wrote about Yelich’s MVP case back in September after the season had concluded.

Yelich still finished the season with 580 plate appearances, enough to qualify for his second straight batting title. If you qualify, then that should really be the end of the argument for those who want to preach about games played. In addition to leading the league in batting average (.326), Yelich also leads the league in on-base percentage (.429), leads the majors in slugging percentage (.671), and leads the majors with a 1.100 OPS. His 179 OPS+, which is ballpark adjusted, also leads the National League.

Beyond that, Yelich leads the National League in wRC+ (174). When you get into stats like weighted runs created-plus, that’s where you start to lose some of the casual fans, but it’s the number one stat that I’ll look at to evaluate a player’s overall offensive contributions. There was nobody better than Yelich in the NL this year. For the voters who weigh wins above replacement the heaviest, then Yelich leads the NL (7.8 fWAR) in that, too. It’s a cumulative stat, so it’s even more impressive that he leads in fWAR regardless of having played fewer games than guys like Cody Bellinger and Anthony Rendon, who will likely round out the top three for the award.

I mean, yeah. Come on. It’s pretty cut and dry here. Yelich lost the award because he had a season-ending injury in the second week of the final month of the season. If he misses four weeks from mid-May to early June, then he wins his second straight MVP award. The timing of the injury shouldn’t cost the guy an MVP award if the overall numbers are there, and they were certainly there. Give me a break.

Anyway, Mike Trout won another MVP award. Feel like that’s not exactly headline news anymore. Guy’s the best player on planet earth. It’s more newsworthy if he doesn’t win. And, in fairness, there have been years when Trout hasn’t won when he should’ve. It took a Triple Crown by Miguel Cabrera in 2012 to rob Trout of what would’ve been his first MVP award, and Trout still had the significantly better season even without the MVP to show for it. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we’re now embarking on the period of time in baseball history when Trout rattles off five in six years or something like that until he passes Barry Bonds’ seven MVP awards.

Both Trout and Alex Bregman had compelling cases to win the MVP this year, but it would’ve been great to watch the internet burn to the ground had Bregman won the award just days after the Astros’ cheating scandal broke (again). It sure would make a lot of sense if the next MVP award that Trout doesn’t win is won by Bregman, trash can be damned.

Arguing the meaning of what “value” means as it pertains to the MVP award in baseball is like arguing about politics. Nobody’s going to ever change their stance on it and nobody ever ends up being “right” because it’s a matter of opinion. The ballot literally says that it’s open to the voter’s interpretation. In the case of Trout versus Bregman, of course you’re going to get the fans who say, “How can Trout be valuable to his team when the Angels didn’t make the playoffs and the Astros went to the World Series?” Well, because he’s the best player in baseball and it’s not his fault that his teammates aren’t nearly as good as him. That’s how.

So, congrats to Trout and Bellinger. In a weird way, I kind of like when voters fuck things up because it creates spirited baseball discussions here in November when we don’t have any baseball to watch. They got the NL MVP award wrong, and the AL MVP award could’ve gone either way. Let the debates begin while we have 90-something days until spring training to go.