Mike Trout and Kris Bryant were born 150 days apart and are luminous talents, and the 2016 season also marked the first time both MVP winners were age 24 or younger.
Here is a link to the Cy Young winners article.
AL MVP AWARD
Mike Trout won his second MVP award and has, remarkably, finished second in the MVP voting in his other three complete seasons. Truly historic. Here is the list of players to win two MVPs before turning 26: Trout, Jimmie Foxx, Stan Musial, Hal Newhouser, Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench.
| Player, Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points |
| Mike Trout, Angels | 19 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 356 | |||||
| Mookie Betts, Red Sox | 9 | 17 | 4 | 311 | |||||||
| Jose Altuve, Astros | 2 | 15 | 11 | 2 | 227 | ||||||
| Josh Donaldson, Blue Jays | 2 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 200 | |||
| Manny Machado, Orioles | 5 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 150 | |||
| David Ortiz, Red Sox | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 147 | |
| Adrian Beltre, Rangers | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 135 | |
| Robinson Cano, Mariners | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 79 | |||
| Francisco Lindor, Indians | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 56 | |||||
| Miguel Cabrera, Tigers | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 56 | |||||
| Zach Britton, Orioles | 1 | 3 | 2 | 11 | |||||||
| Kyle Seager, Mariners | 2 | 2 | 10 | ||||||||
| Brian Dozier, Twins | 1 | 1 | 4 | 9 | |||||||
| Edwin Encarnacion, Blue Jays | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |||||||
| Nelson Cruz, Mariners | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||||||||
| Chris Sale, White Sox | 1 | 3 | |||||||||
| Jose Ramirez, Indians | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Justin Verlander, Tigers | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Adam Eaton, White Sox | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Corey Kluber, Indians | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Evan Longoria, Rays | 1 | 1 |
Trout’s team only won 74 games, and that caused some concern for those trumpeting his candidacy (he was the sixth winner from a team with a losing record). Ultimately the voters decided his season was simply too good to ignore. Trout led the majors in runs (123), walks (116), OBP (.441) and WAR (9.4). He was also second the AL in OPS (.991) and second in steals (30) as he finished the year one homer short of a .315-30-100-120-30 season.
Mookie Betts, who came in second in the vote, had remarkably similar numbers.
| AVG | HR | RBI | RUNS | SB | OBP | OPS | WAR |
Trout | .315 | 29 | 100 | 123 | 30 | .441 | .991 | 9.4 |
Betts | .318 | 31 | 113 | 122 | 26 | .363 | .897 | 7.8 |
You know it’s a tough race when you go .338-24-96-108-30 with a .928 OPS and finish third. Jose Altuve had a hell of a season and became the first player since 1920 to win the batting title with 30 steals and 70 extra base hits. The last man to pull off that feat was George Sisler.
NL MVP AWARD
Kris Bryant won the Golden Spikes Award as the best player in college.
Bryant won the Baseball American Minor League Player of the Year Award.
Bryant won the Rookie of the Year Award in the NL last year.
This season he took home MVP honors to become the fourth player to win the Rookie Award, and the MVP, in back-to-back-seasons: Cal Ripken, Ryan Howard, Dustin Pedroia.
He is the first player ever to win each of those awards in four consecutive seasons.
Bryant got all but one first place vote in a near unanimous selection thanks to his .292-39-102-121-8 effort that included a .939 OPS.
| Player, Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points |
| Kris Bryant, Cubs | 29 | 1 | 415 | ||||||||
| Daniel Murphy, Nationals | 1 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 245 | ||||
| Corey Seager, Dodgers | 11 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 240 | ||||||
| Anthony Rizzo, Cubs | 3 | 4 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 202 | ||||
| Nolan Arenado, Rockies | 3 | 6 | 6 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 199 | ||||
| Freddie Freeman, Braves | 1 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 129 | ||
| Joey Votto, Reds | 1 | 4 | 12 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 100 | ||||
| Yoenis Cespedes, Mets | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 45 | |||||
| Justin Turner, Dodgers | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 44 | ||||
| Max Scherzer, Nationals | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 39 | |||||
| Paul Goldschmidt, Diamondbacks | 2 | 3 | 6 | 18 | |||||||
| Brandon Crawford, Giants | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 15 | |||||
| Jean Segura, Diamondbacks | 1 | 2 | 7 | 14 | |||||||
| Buster Posey, Giants | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | |||||||
| DJ LeMahieu, Rockies | 3 | 2 | 8 | ||||||||
| Madison Bumgarner, Giants | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||||||||
| Jeurys Familia, Mets | 2 | 6 | |||||||||
| Wilson Ramos, Nationals | 2 | 6 | |||||||||
| Addison Russell, Cubs | 1 | 5 | |||||||||
| Noah Syndergaard, Mets | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||
| Christian Yelich, Marlins | 2 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||
| Yasmani Grandal, Dodgers | 1 | 4 | |||||||||
| Kyle Hendricks, Cubs | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Ryan Braun, Brewers | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| Yadier Molina, Cardinals | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| Charlie Blackmon, Rockies | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Johnny Cueto, Giants | 1 | 1 |
Bryant became the first MVP to have played four positions in a season (third, first, left and right). He also became one of 11 players to lead his league in WAR while playing for a first-place team.
Daniel Murphy finished in second spot in the voting after become the 5th second baseman ever, and first since Joe Morgan in 1976, to lead his league in SLG (.595) and OPS (.985). He also hit .347, second best in baseball. Corey Seager came in third, and you can read more about his effort in my Rookie of the Year article.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).