Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels won the AL MVP for the third time in the past six years.
Trout, who also won the award in 2014 and 2016, is the sixth three-time MVP in the history of AL voting, along with Jimmie Foxx (1932-33, 1938), Joe DiMaggio (1939, 1941, 1947), Yogi Berra (1951, 1954-55), Mickey Mantle (1956-57, 1962) and Alex Rodriguez (2003, 2005, 2007).
Barry Bonds is the all-time record-holder with seven MVP Awards, all in the National League (1990, 1992-93, 2001-04). Other three-time winners in the NL were Stan Musial (1943, 1946, 1948), Roy Campanella (1951, 1953, 1955), Mike Schmidt (1980-81, 1986) and Albert Pujols (2005, 2008-09), now a Trout teammate.
Trout is the first MVP winner in either league to have won the award three times after finishing second in the previous election. He was the runner-up in 2013 and a winner in 2014, the runner-up in 2015 and a winner in 2016 and the runner-up in 2018 and the winner this year. The only other player to have done that more than once was Bonds in the National League in 1992 and 2001. Other MVP winners who ran second the year before they won in the AL were Phil Rizzuto in 1950, Berra in 1954, Mantle in 1962, Boog Powell in 1970 and Rodriguez in 2003. NL MVP winners who were the runners-up the previous year were Chuck Klein in 1932 and George Foster in 1977.
Trout’s third victory was the 12th for a center fielder in the AL. He joined fellow three-time winners DiMaggio and Mantle as well as Fred Lynn (1975), Robin Yount (1989) and Ken Griffey Jr. (1997). Yount was a shortstop when he won his first MVP Award in 1982. His team, the Brewers, moved to the NL in 1998. A center fielder has won the award in the NL six times – twice apiece by Willie Mays (1954, 1965) and Dale Murphy (1982-83) and once each by Willie McGee (1985) and Andrew McCutchen (2013).
In addition to Trout’s three victories, the Angels have had winners with Don Baylor (1979) and Vlad Guerrero (2004).
With Cody Bellinger’s victory in the NL voting, this was the 12th time players from one market were MVPs the same year and the sixth time involving the Dodgers, most recently with Clayton Kershaw and Trout in 2014. While in Brooklyn, Dolph Camilli won in 1941 with the New York Yankees’ Joe DiMaggio; Roy Campanella and the Yankees’ Yogi Berra won in 1951 and ’55, and Don Newcombe won with the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle in 1956. Other dual-market MVPs were Philadelphia’s Chuck Klein of the Phillies and Jimmie Foxx of the Athletics in 1932; New York’s Carl Hubbell of the Giants and Lou Gehrig of the Yankees in 1936 and the Giants’ Willie Mays and the Yankees’ Berra in 1954; Chicago’s Ernie Banks of the Cubs and Nellie Fox of the White Sox in 1959, and the Bay Area’s Jeff Kent of the San Francisco Giants and Jason Giambi of the Oakland Athletics in 2000 and Barry Bonds of the Giants and Miguel Tejada of the A’s in 2002. There were never dual MVP winners in Boston or St. Louis. In 1947, the Boston Braves’ Bob Elliot was the NL MVP, but the Red Sox’ Ted Williams ran second in the AL to DiMaggio.
Trout, Alex Bregman and Marcus Semien were the only players named on every ballot.
Ballots, submitted before the postseason, were cast by two writers in each league city. They are tabulated on a system that rewards 14 points for first place, nine for second, eight for third on down to one for 10th.
2019 AL MVP
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Trout, Angels | 17 | 13 | 355 | ||||||||
| Alex Bregman, Astros | 13 | 17 | 335 | ||||||||
| Marcus Semien, A's | 22 | 6 | 2 | 228 | |||||||
| DJ LeMahieu, Yankees | 6 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 178 | |||
| Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox | 1 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 147 | |||
| Matt Chapman, A's | 1 | 3 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 89 | ||||
| George Springer, Astros | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 69 | |||
| Mookie Betts, Red Sox | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 67 | |||
| Nelson Cruz, Twins | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 62 | ||||
| Gerrit Cole, Astros | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 61 | |||
| Justin Verlander, Astros | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 56 | ||
| Rafael Devers, Red Sox | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 40 | |||||
| Jorge Polanco, Twins | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 20 | ||||||
| Austin Meadows, Rays | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 15 | ||||||
| Francisco Lindor, Indians | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | ||||||
| Carlos Santana, Indians | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |||||||
| Gleyber Torres, Yankees | 1 | 1 | 8 | ||||||||
| Eddie Rosario, Twins | 2 | 6 | |||||||||
| Jose Abreu, White Sox | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||
| Max Kepler, Twins | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| J.D. Martinez, Red Sox | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Yoan Moncada, White Sox | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Charlie Morton, Rays | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Matt Olson, A's | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Jorge Soler, Royals | 1 | 1 |
View individual ballots on a separate page.
The always humble @MikeTrout thanks his teammates, coaches and family for his successful career, which includes 3 @officialBBWAA AL MVP awards! @Angels pic.twitter.com/HMYDrzqNRr
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) November 15, 2019