The Opener: MVPs, Phillips

Awards season is officially over. Not many surprises this year, though the players receiving down-ballot MVP votes are always intriguing. 1. PCA wins NL MVP A massive 40/40 season earned Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong the NL MVP award. It was a unanimous decision. Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani finished second, followed by Brewers second baseman Brice Turang. PCA was the engine of an offense that led the league in scoring. He recorded 9.8 WAR per Baseball Reference and 10.6 WAR per FanGraphs. Both marks easily paced all players. Some interesting names to receive down-ballot votes were free agent first basemen Jake Bauers and Ty France, along with the Nationals duo of James Wood and CJ Abrams. 2. Alvarez takes home AL MVP It was also a unanimous choice on the AL side. Yordan Alvarez of the Astros received the AL MVP after a dominant offensive season. Alvarez slashed .316/.432/.601 with 42 homers and 100+ runs and RBI. He led all hitters by a massive margin with a 181 wRC+. PCA was next at 157. Rays third baseman Junior Caminero was the clear runner-up, garnering 27 of 30 second-place votes. Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. rounded out the group. Others receiving votes included Guardians closer Cade Smith and Rangers utilityman Ezequiel Duran. Full voting results can be found here. 3. Phillips to the Braves Another move! The GM Meetings didn’t produce a ton of tangible deals, but we did get Emilio Pagan to the Tigers as the first substantial move of free agency. We got more action on Thursday with the Braves landing reliever Evan Phillips. The former Dodger came back from Tommy John surgery last season and pitched well, with a 3.46 ERA and a 31.1% strikeout rate over 31 appearances. He’ll join a high-leverage group in Atlanta that lost Raisel Iglesias but still has Robert Suarez and Dylan Lee. Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images View Comments (0)