Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was named the National League MVP, the second time he has won the award. Harper won in 2015 with the Washington Nationals.
It marks the eighth time a Phillies player has won the award with Harper joining Jimmy Rollins (2007), Ryan Howard (2006), three-time winner Mike Schmidt (1980-81, ’86), Jim Konstanty (1950) and Chuck Klein (1932).
Harper is the 12th multiple winner of the National League award. Barry Bonds was a seven-time winner. Schmidt, Stan Musial, Roy Campanella and Albert Pujols won three times each. Harper joins two-time winners Carl Hubbell, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Dale Murphy. There have been 15 multiple winners of the American League award. Frank Robinson is the only player to win the award in both leagues, in the NL with the Cincinnati Reds in 1961 and in the AL with the Baltimore Orioles in 1966.
Harper also joins Robinson as having won the award for two different clubs along with Bonds with the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. Bonds won with the Pirates in 1990 and ’92 and with the Giants in 1993, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Two AL winners also won for two clubs — Jimmie Foxx with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1932 and ‘33 and with the Boston Red Sox in 1938 and Alex Rodriguez with the Texas Rangers in 2003 and with the New York Yankees in 2005 and ‘07.
Harper’s second election increases to 14 the amount of times a right fielder won the NL award. The others in addition to Harper, Klein, Robinson and Musial were Henry Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Dave Parker, Andre Dawson, Larry Walker, Sammy Sosa and Giancarlo Stanton. A right fielder has won in the AL 11 times.
Runner-up Juan Soto was also a second-place finisher in NL voting for the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award in 2018 (to Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves). Soto is the sixth player to have been a runner-up for both Rookie of the Year and MVP Awards. The others: Gary Carter (1975 NL Rookie, 1980 NL MVP), Ozzie Smith (1978 NL Rookie, 1987 NL MVP), Paul Molitor (AL Rookie 1978, AL MVP 1993), Kent Hrbek (1982 AL Rookie, 1984 AL MVP) and Joey Votto (2009 NL Rookie, 2017 MVP). Of that group, only Votto was an MVP winner, in 2010.
For only the second time since the addition of wild cards in postseason play dating to 1995 the top three finishers in the NL MVP race were on clubs that failed to qualify for the postseason. The other time was also when Harper was the MVP, in 2015 with Paul Goldschmidt second and Votto third.
Ballots, submitted before the start of 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.
2021 NL MVP
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bryce Harper, Phillies | 17 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 348 | |||||
| Juan Soto, Nationals | 6 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 274 | |||
| Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres | 2 | 5 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 244 | ||||
| Brandon Crawford, Giants | 4 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 213 | ||
| Trea Turner, Nationals/Dodgers | 1 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 185 | |
| Paul Goldschmidt, Cardinals | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 128 | |||
| Austin Riley, Braves | 1 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 111 | |||
| Tyler O'Neill, Cardinals | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 62 | ||||
| Freddie Freeman, Braves | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 43 | ||||
| Max Muncy, Dodgers | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 38 | |||||
| Bryan Reynolds, Pirates | 3 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 33 | ||||||
| Nick Castellanos, Reds | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 24 | ||||||
| Ozzie Albies, Braves | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | |||||||
| Max Scherzer, Nationals/Dodgers | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | |||||||
| Corbin Burnes, Brewers | 1 | 3 | 9 | ||||||||
| Joey Votto, Reds | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | |||||||
| Willy Adames, Brewers | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | |||||||
| Manny Machado, Padres | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |||||||
| Zack Wheeler, Phillies | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||
| Adam Wainwright, Cardinals | 1 | 3 | |||||||||
| LaMonte Wade Jr., Giants | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Kevin Gausman, Giants | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Buster Posey, Giants | 1 | 1 |