Harper, Donaldson win MVP honors

Trout also placed second in both 2012 and ’13 to Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera, and was a unanimous victor last season.

Then Josh Donaldson got in the way. Donaldson received 23 of 30 first-place votes and 385 points from the Baseball Writers’Association of America. Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout, who won the award last season, got the seven other first-place votes and finished second for the third time. This is the third season in a row that Trout has been a finalist for the award, and he’s only 24 years old.

“He’s a great player”. “Mike Trout is unbelievable, but what Josh Donaldson has done this year has been a little bit better.”. It definitely could have gone either way…. Trout and Cain are good ball players. I respect him more than anybody.

Harper put aside his injury problems from recent seasons and put up huge numbers.

Finally healthy and armed with a smarter approach at the plate, Harper was the league’s most potent offensive force.

He went into the final day of the regular season with a chance to win the NL batting title – Miami’s Dee Gordon edged him – and scored a league-leading 118 runs.

Harper turned 23 in mid-October, after the postseason had already started.

This year, Harper played 153 games, avoided the disabled list and kept climbing the statistic charts.

Votto’s second half included a streak of reaching base in 48 consecutive games, tying Pete Rose’s franchise record in 1978.

Harper became the youngest player to win the award in 40 years. “I definitely think that helped”, Donaldson said. Donaldson outdistanced Mike Trout, who was the runner-up for the third time in four years.

In the wake of Bryce Harper’s tremendous accomplishment, professional Baseball shortstop Ian Desmond predicted many more accomplishments for Harper in the future and said, “Don’t be surprised if he wins the triple crown and the MVP next year and takes the team to the World Series”.

Donaldson joined 1987 victor George Bell as the only Blue Jays to be named MVP. He ranked fifth in the American League in batting average (.307), fifth in runs (101), second in stolen bases (28) fourth in Baseball-Reference’s version of defensive wins above replacement (2.3) and fourth in overall wins above replacement (7.2). He can not be a free agent until after the 2018 season, but the A’s – seeking to capitalize on his value – shipped Donaldson to the Blue Jays in November for third baseman Brett Lawrie, pitchers Kendall Graveman and Sean Nolin and Franklin Barreto, a highly regarded Class A shortstop.

Here are five noteworthy stats from the first MVP seasons from these two outstanding players.

After getting over the initial shock, Donaldson realized the trade could be the best thing that ever happened to him.