Mike Trout wins his third AL MVP award:
Trout, who also won the award in 2014 and 2016, is the sixth three-time MVP in the history of AL voting, along with Jimmie Foxx (1932-33, 1938), Joe DiMaggio (1939, 1941, 1947), Yogi Berra (1951, 1954-55), Mickey Mantle (1956-57, 1962) and Alex Rodriguez (2003, 2005, 2007).
Barry Bonds is the all-time record-holder with seven MVP Awards, all in the National League (1990, 1992-93, 2001-04). Other three-time winners in the NL were Stan Musial (1943, 1946, 1948), Roy Campanella (1951, 1953, 1955), Mike Schmidt (1980-81, 1986) and Albert Pujols (2005, 2008-09), now a Trout teammate.
BBWAA.com
It was a very close vote, with Trout and Alex Bregman getting all the first and second place vote on a 17-13 split. That meant Trout beat Bregman by 20 points. Marcus Semien finished third, with DJ LeMahieu fourth.
Although Justin Verlander won the Cy Young, Gerrit Cole finished just ahead of Verlander in the MVP voting. The two came in 10th and 11th.
Trout could easily have five MVPs already, as some thought he deserved a couple early in his career. He may wind up catching Bonds before his playing days are over.
It seems as if the term “Valuable” has morphed into “Statistically Best”. I do realize that “Valuable” is difficult to quantify, but it seems to me that the MVP should be the player who helped their team win the most..and then you start the “Without Trout, the Angels finish in AAA…” so, yes it is difficult. The Cy Young used to have “Most Valuable Pitcher” stamped on it, now it has “Most Outstanding Pitcher” and seems as if there was something different in between those two qualifiers. Just find it all interesting. Personally I think Bregman and Rendon should have won..
The pendulum certainly swung in the other direction. There was a time when it appeared too little statistical information was used to select an MVP. Now, there may be too much information. Of course, if I had to choose one, I prefer the latter. I thought Rendon was MVP, but Bellinger was a great candidate. I thought Bregman was MVP, but Trout was a great candidate. The voters are less likely to make an egregious mistake using statistically best.