Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong was named baseball’s National League Most Valuable Player on Thursday, ending Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani’s two-year reign. The 24-year-old was a unanimous selection ahead of Ohtani and Brice Turang of the World Series champion Milwaukee Brewers, earning all 30 first-place votes from a panel of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez won the American League award, becoming the fourth Cuban to earn MVP honors.
Crow-Armstrong delivered one of the best all-around seasons in MLB history, tying Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead in home runs with 45 and finishing second in the National League in stolen bases with 41. He became the seventh player in history with a 40-40 season and joined Ohtani (2024) and Alfonso Soriano (2006) as the only players to have at least 45 home runs, 40 steals, and 30 doubles in one year. Crow-Armstrong played 162 games, piling up 107 runs batted in with 83 walks and scoring 119 runs.
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He joins an illustrious list of Cubs players to win the award, including Ernie Banks in 1958 and 1959, Ryne Sandberg in 1984, Sammy Sosa in 1998, and, most recently, Kris Bryant in 2016. “I don’t even know where to put myself in all that,” said Crow-Armstrong, flanked by family as he spoke on the MLB Network’s award presentation ceremony. “I’ve been so lucky to be around such great Cubs and even more than that just really big people and names in the game of baseball. I’m happy to be able to carry on their legacy,” he said.
Ohtani was a finalist for a fifth career MVP. He won his first two with the Los Angeles Angels in 2021 and 2023 and bagged the NL award in each of his first two seasons with the Dodgers — 2024 and 2025. Despite a season that was hindered by injuries — he didn’t pitch in a game after July 3 and his effectiveness at the plate also suffered as he dealt with left knee and right biceps injuries — Ohtani remains one of two players, alongside Barry Bonds, with at least four MVP awards. Bonds tops the all-time list with seven between 1990 and 2004.
Alvarez, 29, was also a unanimous choice. He won the AL batting title with a .316 average and led the league in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, total bases, walks, and extra-base hits. Alvarez, who won a World Series title with the Astros in 2022, finished second this season in runs batted in with 106 and tied for second in home runs with a career-high 42. He was so feared as a hitter that he drew 33 intentional walks and becomes just the second player who was primarily used as a designated hitter to win an MVP award — after Ohtani in 2024.
“Incredible, incredible,” Alvarez said, appearing from his home on the televised award show. “I don’t like to show my emotions, but I think I’m super emotional about this because my family here, my brother, we’ve had such a long road. Such a hard road. We never imagined we’d get to this point, but it’s just unbelievable.” Junior Caminero, the 23-year-old Tampa Bay Rays sensation who hit 42 home runs and had 101 runs batted in, finished second in the voting with 27 of 30 second-place votes, and Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals was third.
© 2024 AFP
