Red Sox Mookie Betts and Brewers Christian Yelich win BBWAA MVP Awards

The fourth and final of the 2018 Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) awards were announced today and the Most Valuable Player Award winners were outfielders Mookie Betts of the World Series champion Boston Red Sox and Christian Yelich of the National League Central champion Milwaukee Brewers. It was the first time either player has won the award.

The 26-year-old Betts had a season for the ages in Boston. He led the majors with a .346 batting average, 129 runs scores and a .640 slugging percentage that was fueled by 47 doubles, five triples and 32 home runs. His .438 on-base percentage was second only to Mike Trout of the Angels. On top of that, Betts was a Gold Glove-winning defensive outfielder in right field.

It was the tenth time in history that a Red Sox player has won the MVP Award. The other winners were Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams (twice), Jackie Jensen, Fred Lynn, Jim Rice, Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn and Dustin Pedroia.

Yelich, also 26, made the most of his first season in Milwaukee, He won the National League batting title with a .326 batting average. He also led the league with a .598 in slugging percentage with 34 doubles, seven triples and 36 home runs. Most importantly, he had a whopping 1.313 OPS in September as he led the Brewers to their first NL Central title since 2011.

It was the fourth time a Brewers player collected the MVP Award and the second time a Brewers player has won the National League award. Robin Yount won the award twice in the American League and Ryan Braun won the Award once after the team moved to the NL.

The voting was not close in either league. Betts claimed 28 of 30 first-place votes. The other two went to second-place finisher Mike Trout and the fourth-place finisher, Red Sox outfielder/DH J.D. Martinez. Indians third baseman Jose Ramirez finished third and Astros third baseman Alex Bregman finished fifth.

In the National League, Yelich received 29 of 30 first-place votes with the other one going to Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom of the Mets. deGrom finished fifth overall in the voting. The Cubs’ Javier Baez got 19 of 30 second-place votes and finished second in the voting. Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado was third and Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman finished fourth.

The voting for the top five finishers in the AL MVP voting was as follows:

Here is the complete voting for the AL MVP Award. All of the 30 individual ballots can be found here. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram voted for Trout and Dave Campbell of the Associated Press voted for Martinez.

The voting for the top five finishers in the AL MVP voting was as follows:

Here is the complete vote totals for the NL MVP voting. And if you want to see every voters ballot, go here. Baez was named on all 30 ballots with the 19 second-place votes, four third-place votes, five fourth-place votes and two fifth-place votes. Arenado and Freeman were the other two players named on all 30 ballots. Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic cast the lone first-place vote for deGrom, preventing Yelich from winning unanimously.

Anthony Rizzo was the only other Cubs’ player who received any votes. He received one eighth-place, one ninth-place and one tenth-place vote.