Bryce Harper earns first NL MVP Award

Having just turned 23 years old last month, Washington Nationals right-fielder Bryce Harper has just become the youngest person in baseball history to be unanimously voted the National League MVP. His 420 points beat out Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (234 points) and Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds (175 points).

Meanwhile, Donaldson gained 23 first-place votes in the American League, 16 more than runner-up Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels. He had 122 runs, 184 hits, 41 doubles, two triples, 41 home runs, 123 RBIs, six stolen bases, 352 total bases, 10 sacrifice flies, a. 371 on-base average and a. 568 slugging percentage. He hit.330, led the NL with 42 home runs, 118 runs scored, a. 460 OBP and.

Only Stan Musial (1943), Johnny Bench (1970) and Vida Blue (1971) were younger MVP winners than Harper was in his age 22 season.

George Bell was the first Blue Jays player to win the AL MVP in 1987.

Donaldson went to Toronto in an offseason trade with Oakland; he brought more than a booming bat his grit and toughness helped lead the Blue Jays to the playoffs for the first time since 1993. The injury-plagued Nationals didn’t do almost so well, starting the season as World Series favourites and finishing out of contention.

“At the beginning of the year”, Harper said upon winning the award, “that was my goal, from Day 1”.

The season starts April 3 with three games: St. Louis at Pittsburgh, followed by Toronto at Tampa Bay and then the Mets visiting Kansas City at night.

For the first time since 1991, the top three vote-getters in the NL played for clubs that did not make the playoffs.

Of course, a big part of Harper’s success was the fact that he managed to stay healthy all season long for the first time since 2012. In 2015 Donaldson showed he is not just a power hitter, but a complete player; to me, is the MVP without a single doubt in my mind. The MVP is not whoever was the best player in each league, it is about exactly what it says, “Most Valuable Player”.

“You know going into a season that if you”™re ultimately going to win an MVP, you”™ve got to put up better numbers than Mike,” Donaldson said on a conference call. Kansas City Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain finished in third.

“You could see throughout the season what this guy meant to this ballclub”.

Trout hit.299/.402/.590 with 41 home runs and 92 walks for the Angels.

This is a 2015 photo of Josh Donaldson of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.