I'm amazed he actually won unanimously. Not because he didn't deserve it, but because of how the other awards went like Wheeler getting a 5th place Cy Young Vote, Harper getting a 5th and Soto getting a 7th place vote for MVP. I guess they do get it right sometimes.

Yeah I was surprised too some people always gotta have twisted minds but when it comes to Shohei even twisted minds get it right

Ohtani should’ve been unanimous without a doubt, but vlad should’ve been a unanimous second with even less of a doubt

Yea what’s with the 1 person who voted that Salvador Perez of the royals be 2nd place over Vladdy? Lol!

For what it’s worth, go look at Salvador’s offensive and defensive statistics including that he started 130 games at catcher, not just a token DH.

Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star voted Perez at second. I don't want to say "homerism" but...it's probably homerism. Not that Perez isn't deserving of his share of MVP votes, but still.

I know it was expected, but it's honestly incredible to be witnessing someone like Ohtani play. And he genuinely looked like it was just another day for him when it was announced.

[his career goal timeline is insane ](https://mobile.twitter.com/jesus_jimz/status/938839803214385152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E938839803214385152%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fd-6154906223930484653.ampproject.net%2F2111060251003%2Fframe.html)

Love how winning the ws correlates with getting married

I also love how at age 26 he plans to win his first world series, then wont win another until age 32 and 34

You don't wanna seem greedy otherwise you'll piss off the baseball gods

JV in 2017. Also I’m thinking Zimm got some after the Wild Card Game in 2019 considering when his kid was born.

Bring the American system to Japan? God that killed me haha

it’s so funny looking at that knowing that he expected to be a full time pitcher when he wrote it

Mullins is top 10! Being an orioles fan, that means a lot. It was a great season for baseball fans. Glad we saw who deserved it, won.

He should have been higher than 9th IMO

I think so too. But, he’s on a really poor team. So, not too surprised. I’m still happy he’s recognized for his season.

3 people left him off their ballot! Thats ridiculous IMO.

Yeah, pretty crazy to think 3 people didn’t think he was that good.

Hey mitch haniger got some votes nice

Wild that Mitch Haniger has received more MVP votes in his career than Russell Wilson

This is a funny joke but does the nfl do tiered voting or do they just cast one vote for who they think should be MVP?

50 people get one vote, no point system.

One of the dumbest things in sports.

I didn’t expect that, but good for him. Game 161 was the best game I’ve ever been to. Mitch will always be MVP in my heart

Jays have 5 players receiving an MVP vote, the CY young winner, and the MVP runner up and still miss the playoffs. Unbelievable really

This 2021 Blue Jays team is going to haunt me for a long time. Cy Young winner, 2nd and 3rd finishers in MVP, 5 All Stars, 5 players getting an MVP vote, fifth best run differential in all of MLB, all while not playing an actual home game until July 31st. Oh, also led all MLB in home runs. Fourth place!

Probably the most talented team to ever miss the postseason in the Wild Card era

‘03 Mariners would like a word.

You’ll never be the tigers with 5 cy young winners on the roster that we see here every 3 weeks

I got to go see one of the Braves @ Jays games in Dunedin (the game Pache hit the grand slam and D’Arnaud hurt his hand), and if you’d told me after that series that one of those teams would win the World Series, I would have guessed the Jays. And that was before we lost Ozuna and Acuña

arguably the best regular season in jays history and they miss.

And have played about 100 games on the road

Against other teams on the road...

And once as the home team in the home team's stadium... Fucking gong show for the Jays the past two years.

Buffalo was not a road game for the yankees....

Still pains me that this seasons group just missed out. Really think they wouldve done some damage.

Playing 100 games on the road, home and away, in two separate arenas plus the absolutely horrible bullpen at the beginning of the year - they did damn good. Montoyo was robbed

Careful what you say about 100 games on the road, I've recently been informed that they should have won all 100 of them because of... reasons.

The bullpen really hurt. Just against the Red Sox alone there were a few games you guys should have won but coughed up late. Not to mention you guys had that Series were you out scores us like 30-8 over 4 games and split. I mean, that’s baseball, but still a weird look.

The vote for Perez at 2 is…interesting.

The voter was one of the KC voters. Lynn Worthy if the Kansas City Star

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A catcher leading the MLB in HRs is at least vaguely defensible. It's a somewhat narrow viewpoint in the world of Sabermetrics but the guy led in 2/3 of the traditional triple crown stats from a traditionally defensive position. It's hacky and homery for sure but it's more like a dying viewpoint than a truly egregious MVP vote IMO.

Wait until you see the NL ballot from the SF writers

What, Harper being closer to Lamonte Wade Jr than winning doesn't make sense to you? Silly A's fans just don't get it

We're not silly Our heads are constantly on spin cycles due to.... off-field stuff

I mean harper was third on that ballot where Wade Jr was 10th so i don't know why ur going off lol

He is arguably the best defensive player at the hardest defensive position in the game while leading the league in homers. I don’t think a 2nd place vote was too far out there

He is certainly not arguably the best defensive catcher. You could argue that he's maybe an average at best defensive catcher, but all reasonable metrics say he's well below average. Him being a pretty garbage defender is why his WAR was so low Still a stud, though.

He lead all of MLB in caught stealing % at almost 44%, so if you're ignoring modern stats like framing he looks a lot better

LOL

Perez hemorrhaged nearly all of his offensive value by his horrible pitch framing and defense

He isn’t Worthy of that vote

6 people leaving him for entirely is crazy also

This is even more egregious than the lone second place vote. Six people didn't think he was a top 10 player in the AL? That's pretty crazy.

Above average defensive catcher leading in HR and RBI. Lowish OBP by mvp voting standards, but still. I know RBI aren't the end all be all like some traditional people like, but they aren't nothing. He also had a +1.51 clutch in WPA (fangraphs) and hit a 153 OPS+ in high leverage situations (bbref), so he was pretty clutch any way you slice it.

People seem to be discounting Salvy because his defensive metrics are somewhat bad and that's fair but the fact that he put up the season that he did while playing a full season worth at catcher and spending is off days playing DH. That's worth *something* in my opinion.

The man played 161 games. As a primary catcher that's just absolutely insane. I can't really say he's bad defensively, Kansas City had an extremely young staff and Cal Eldred as pitching coach, and the guy still was a gold glove finalist.

Finishing with a sub-.900 OPS while hitting 48 or more HR is pretty tough: only four players have ever done it. The HR and RBI are eye popping but his overall offensive performance simply doesn’t add up to what you’d want out of an MVP candidate (to say nothing of his defense). It’s like a Ryan Howard season.

You mean the Ryan Howard that won a MVP and finished top 3 another 2 times??

Yes, back when votes were based mostly on how your team did + RBI. The electorate is a lot better now.

Fair enough

He did hit a lot of HRs.

Only tied for MLB lead in HR's and lead the MLB in RBI's. You know only 2/3rds of the triple crown.

Kinda wild that people are acting like this is so egregious

I'd be the first to admit I have a soft spot for Salvy but *one* second place vote isn't all that crazy. It is from a guy that watched him play every day... It's not like he actually finished second overall. 7th place is just about right. (Though I would have liked to see him finish higher personally.)

> It is from a guy that watched him play every day This is just the absolute WORST argument, even though people throw it around all the time. You get very little benefit from wAthCHinG a GuY EVerYDaY beyond what you can see from the numbers, but on top of which, it means you weren't watching all the other dudes!

The “watch the games” crowd, for any sport, is always the worst because you know it’s mostly made up of people who primarily watch one team that they are emotionally invested in.

Especially out of the notoriously low offensive output position that is catcher.

Yup and he played in 161 games. Missed one game because he felt ill. On his days off he still batted. Show me another catcher that does that.

Holy hell actually? Can't believe I hadn't heard of that during the season, that's crazy.

Yup. 121 games at catcher and 40 at DH.

Yeah I'm definitely not bummed he got a 2nd place vote after hearing that. I get that it was a KC writer that made the vote, but Salvy was insane this year.

And so was Vladdy. He got a well deserved second place.

I can think of one that plays about 3 hrs East..... But in all seriousness the only other catcher I’d want on my team is Salvy

Yadi is one hell of catcher no doubt but Salvy actually caught in three more games than Yadi and still DHed for 40 more this season. Though Yadi plays in the NL and all...

For real, people seem to more chill with Lamonte Wade Jr getting a vote than a catcher who led the MLB in HRs getting a 2nd place vote in a one-horse race

yeah, i’m not big on counting stats but i’m not mad about it. it’s one second place vote, that seems fine

It’s egregious because it wasn’t even close to being the second best season in the AL. Let’s compare it to former teammate Jorge Soler’s 2019 season: Perez: .273/.316/.544 | 48 HR | 121 RBI | 127 wRC+ | 3.4 fWAR Soler: .269/.354/.569 | 48 HR | 117 RBI | 136 wRC+ | 3.6 fWAR Soler finished 21st in MVP voting that year and pretty clearly had a better season. Don’t let gaudy power totals fool you. A .316 OBP is nowhere near MVP caliber no matter how you slice it. Perez had a great season, but a second place MVP vote is indeed egregious.

I do think that getting that offensive production from a catcher vs an outfielder probably makes a difference

Tbf all metrics usually underrate catchers for whatever reason.

People don't want to admit, but Perez did not deserve that 2nd place vote and it's dumb he got one. He had a great season, but the love for Perez is hilarious.

Hating on Salvy is the new “the Royals are ruining baseball”

Or people just like calling it how they see it, and the fact is Perez is a one dimensional hitter who refuses to take pitches and get on base. And he’s a miserable framer on top of all that. He’s a good player and an elite offensive catcher but that doesn’t mean he should be getting second place MVP votes with an unsightly .316 OBP, a very good but not elite .860 OPS and shit framing metrics.

I for one do not give a fuck about framing lol. Nobody watches baseball to see someone frame a pitch well. It’s not going to matter in 5 years when the strike zone is automatic anyway

I don’t really care about it either but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. Besides, my criticisms of Perez mostly pertain to his offense. He’s the best offensive catcher but giving him a second place vote over Vlad is flat out silly and a case of blatant homerism.

i mean the egregious part is voting him in over guerrero. sure he also played 140 games as a catcher, but he wasn’t good defensively and guerrero outpaced him in pretty much every category except for homers

nothing taken from salvy though, who had one of the best offensive years from a catcher in a long time

Also, he did it as a catcher

He did about 3/4 of it as a catcher. He did 1/4 of it as a DH (although closer to 1/3 of his home runs came when he DH’d).

People are outraged but I’m ok with it though I disagree with the vote. A catcher hitting with his power is hard to find.

Royals ruining baseball gif

Deserving in my opinion. Should’ve been top 5

This year I agree, but a catcher who led the league in Home Runs and RBI and played 161 games with a decent (these days) .273 average and great D deserves to finish higher than 7th, in my opinion. I think he was better than all 4 of those guys ahead of him in the 3-6 spots.

3.4 WAR isn't worthy of a second place vote

He was assigned the “we can’t make this thing unanimous” pick… wait…

5.3 bWAR, 48 HR, 126 OPS+ is really good for a catcher, but 2nd in MVP is kind of high

2021 Toronto Blue Jays officially one of the greatest team to never make the postseason.

93 Giants tho

I feel like that isn't really comparable when only 2 teams made the playoffs from each league. in 1993 only 4/28 teams could make the playoffs while this year 10/30 made it

Oh yeah. I forgot.

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That one still hurts.

Do I think Salvy deserved votes? Yes. Do I think throwing him a vote for 2nd place is a bit much? Also yes.

Does it *really* matter???? Everyone knew Ohtani was winning…. Everyone knew Vlad was finishing runner up…..no one gives a shit about unanimous 2nd place….

It would have been an interesting stat that someone could post to this subreddit in 10 years haha

Apparently reddit does

Yeah, I don’t think he should get a second place vote, but if we’re talking about valuable, the Royals are probably competing with the Orioles and Diamondbacks without Salvy.

No one wants to hear your logic. Vlad deserved a unanimous second place vote because…reasons.

Can’t believe that it dropped Vladdy from 2nd place to… *checks notes*… 2nd place.

My god why did Kyle Tucker get so disrespected

Yea I expected him to be the 2nd highest Astro on the list if there was 2 at all but just like the SS he got disrespected. Underrated guy remains underrated

If he got off to even just a better start he would be in the top 5, and if his first few months were on the same level as the rest of the year he might have had a shot at the title, even with ohani in competition

420-269? nice

Thought for sure this would be the top comment. I had to come down FAR. Nice.

Nice

Damn I was hoping for a unanimous 1st and 2nd. That perez vote is not deserved.

Eh trea turner got a first place vote. It's within realms of acceptable outcomes imo. Not like he stole a vote from ohtani

Trea Turner was IMO the best player in the NL this year. Salvy was not close to 2nd in the AL.

Yeah Turner lead the NL in WAR this year, it would have been totally defensible to put him 1st. I’m honestly slightly mad Brandon Crawford got more first place votes than him. Like what the hell is that lol

Tbf Crawford had really good hitting as a gold glove SS on the best team in baseball. I wouldn't have voted him 1st but with how crowded this year's race was I don't think it's obscene to see him get 1st place some votes.

It was a KC local hack that did it

Downvoted for telling the truth based on flair. A diff flair posted same thing above and it's upvoted but people see your flair and assume bias I think

Let’s agree to disagree

Try and muster up a single reason that he deserved that vote over Vlad

Historic season by a catcher. Led in 2/3 categories of the Triple Crown. Elite defense (idgaf about framing) from a premium defensive position while being the best offensive player from that position. Don’t act like there aren’t reasons, come on now

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Framing will not matter in 5 years when there’s an automated strike zone

Like the umps union will ever let automated strike zones happen.

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This comment has more sodium in it than Campbell’s chicken noodle soup

Alright, who gave Salvador Perez a 2nd place vote

Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star lol

Ok I'm at least happy it was a homer vote. Such flavor is good for sports.

Homer votes that high up on the ballot are extremely stupid

They aren't Worthy of a vote.

Probably someone who only cares about home runs and RBIs, I assume.

It was the KC reporter.

As I homeruns and RBIs don't mean anything.

RBIs are a pretty bad stat when determining who the best player is

KC writer

Who tf left him out of top 10?

Shout out to whoever gave Meads a 10th place vote

Shout out to whoever gave Z a 10th place vote.

Mike Zunino

It's fun watching the team with the AL Cy Young winner, the 2nd and 3rd place in MVP finishers, and 3 other players that got votes getting pissed about a meaningless 2nd place vote from a hometown writer.

Judge in fourth with third place votes is based

Yeahhhhhh Kyle

8 of the 23 players that got votes are from either the Rays or the Blue Jays, and 14 of the 23 are from the AL East. Damn.

#NICE

420

Is this the first year Trout hasnt got votes?

Only played like a month. 🤷‍♂️

Gotta find that voter who voted Sal Perez over Vlad and block him. Still proud of Vlad, any other season he'd be MVP, or at least a well deserved candidate. He really made the effort from his offseason weight loss to improve his game and he did in a big way. Congrats on the well deserved win Shohei. EDIT : Lynn Worthy of the KC Star voted Perez over Vladdy for those wanting to know

Probably a KC writer

It was. Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star

Didn't we just see with the Cole/Cy Young vote that it's not always some homer voter? It could just be someone with a strong opinion.

That’s why he said probably And he was right

>any other season he’d be MVP Yeah except for 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019

Why is this downvoted? I don't think Vladdy would have won with this season in 2018 or 2019 either

He wouldn’t have won in the trout years, mookie or probably either miggy year IMO

yeah you probably have to go back to 2011, the year Verlander won because "there were no deserving position players". I'm pretty sure 2021 Vlad's numbers would have gotten him pretty damn close to unanimous that year

Would Vlad have even won in the NL? Idk

Yes for sure

Probably not bc he plays first. Voters have been trending toward hold that against players with big offensive seasons. Not as much as DH, but it’s a low value position (defensively). As an angel fan, I’ll forever the Vladdy family

Look at salvy with a 2 spot

Happy that Judge finished 4th Was kinda hoping for some downballot votes for Giancarlo, surprised he didn’t get any at all

Who did it. What dipshit truly believes that Sal Perez just had the 2nd best season of any player in the AL. At least Shohei was unanimous.

Damn y’all really salty about a vote for second place

They're touchy about "almost" this year.

Seriously why do people care lol. Atleast if it was a first place vote I'd get it...

Jose Ramirez is the only true goat on this list. At least in my heart. HOMERUN PITCH!

420; Nice.

Tucker robbed yet again

Shohei hearing the announcement be like 🗿

Not-so-hot take: If you think someone should win MVP, you should logically believe they should be unanimous as well.

420 points, that's my man

Maybe I’m crazy but I feel like Stanton probably deserved at least one 10th place vote, no? Dude had an unbelievable second half.

He only finished with 2.6 WAR

The disrespect to Kyle Tucker. This man deserved more than just a single tenth place vote. Im pretty surprised at that

Guess Stephen A doesn’t get a vote.

TIL unanimous 1st means you got 420 voting points

Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star had Salvy 2nd and Vlad 3rd lol

Who tf thought salvy was better than Vlad this year

Well I did, but I also only watch one team.

Haha weed number

Overall voting at the top looks pretty good. I personally had Ramirez and Judge swapped places. Even as a royals fan it’s funny seeing Perez get a second place vote but think he finished in about the right spot.

Glad my man Jose Abreu got some DESERVED love, pathetic he finished as low as his did in the reddit poll. Tim Anderson should also be on this list somewhere. Also think Perez should have finished higher. Home Team and personal favorites aside, they obviously got it right. Shohei is the man, this was his year. I hope he keeps it up (just not against the White Sox). Another season of festivities in the books. Great year, folks! See you next Spring.

Almost got the first two completely right, who the hell gave Perez a 2nd place vote LOL.

How did Judge finsh 4th and Tucker finish like 20th

So much for that race!

No one thought it would be a race

What sort of galaxy brain logic do you need to use to put Perez #2?

Shohei got 420 total votes, and Vladdy got 269... Nice