Chicago White Sox first baseman José Abreu is the 10th former AL Rookie of the Year Award winner (2014) to go on to win an MVP Award.
The others were Fred Lynn in 1975 and Ichiro Suzuki in 2001, the only players to win both awards in the same season.
There have been 18 National League Rookie of the Year winners who also were MVPs. Included in those lists are two players who won the awards in alternate leagues: Frank Robinson (NL Rookie of the Year in 1956, AL MVP in 1966) and Dick Allen (NL Rookie of the Year in 1964 and AL MVP in 1972). Others to win both awards in the AL were Thurman Munson, Rod Carew, Cal Ripken Jr., Jose Canseco, Dustin Pedroia, Justin Verlander and Mike Trout.
This election marks the fifth time a White Sox player has been honored. The others were Allen, Nellie Fox in 1959 and Frank Thomas in 1993 and 1994.
Abreu is the third Cuban-born player to be named MVP. The other two were also both in the AL: Canseco in 1988 and Zoilo Versalles in 1965.
The fifth-place finish for Mike Trout is his lowest in nine seasons of receiving MVP votes. He has won the award three times and finished second four times and fourth once.
This marks the 15th time a first baseman has won the MVP Award in the AL. There have also been 15 winners in the NL. In addition to Thomas, Allen, Carew (1977) and three-time winner Jimmie Foxx (1932, 1933, 1938), other winning AL first basemen were Hank Greenberg in 1935, Lou Gehrig in 1936, Boog Powell in 1970, Don Mattingly in 1985, Mo Vaughn in 1995, Jason Giambi in 2000 and Justin Morneau in 2006.
Abreu, José Ramirez, DJ LeMahieu, Trout and Tim Anderson were named to 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.
2020 AL MVP
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| José Abreu, White Sox | 21 | 8 | 1 | 374 | |||||||
| José Ramírez, Indians | 8 | 17 | 3 | 2 | 303 | ||||||
| DJ LeMahieu, Yankees | 1 | 5 | 15 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 230 | |||
| Shane Bieber, Indians | 4 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 173 | |||
| Mike Trout, Angels | 4 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 172 | |||
| Nelson Cruz, Twins | 1 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 128 | ||||
| Tim Anderson, White Sox | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 125 | ||
| Brandon Lowe, Rays | 1 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 104 | ||||
| Luke Voit, Yankees | 1 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 85 | ||||
| Anthony Rendon, Angels | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 42 | ||||
| Teoscar Hernandez, Blue Jays | 1 | 6 | 8 | ||||||||
| Alex Verdugo, Red Sox | 1 | 6 | |||||||||
| Liam Hendriks, Athletics | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||
| Hyun-Jin Ryu, Blue Jays | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||
| George Springer, Astros | 2 | 4 | |||||||||
| Byron Buxton, Twins | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| David Fletcher, Angels | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Dallas Keuchel, White Sox | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Kyle Lewis, Mariners | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Salvador Perez, Royals | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Eddie Rosario, Twins | 1 | 1 |
View individual ballots on a separate page.
"I'm just grateful." @whitesox first baseman José Abreu was overcome with emotion after winning the 2020 AL MVP ??
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) November 13, 2020
Full interview: https://t.co/30aiXNYQtJ pic.twitter.com/5ix615wV95