Miguel Cabrera, Andrew McCutchen are baseball MVPs
Mike Trout might be the best player in baseball. He might even win a most-valuable-player award one of these years.
This was not the year, again. For the second consecutive season, Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera beat the Angels outfielder for the American League MVP award in voting announced Thursday by the Baseball Writers Assn. of America.
Andrew McCutchen, the leader and best player of the team that returned postseason baseball to Pittsburgh for the first time in 21 years, was named the National League MVP.
Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks finished second, followed by Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Goldschmidt got no first-place votes. McCutchen would have won unanimously had the two St. Louis voters not cast first-place ballots for Molina.
Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers placed seventh, the highest finish for an NL pitcher since Roy Halladay was sixth in 2010.
The other Dodgers to receive votes: Shortstop Hanley Ramirez finished eighth, outfielder Yasiel Puig 15th, and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez 19th.
Cabrera became the first AL player to win in back-to-back years since Frank Thomas of the Chicago White Sox did so in 1993-94.
Cabrera got 22 first-place votes last year, 23 this year. Trout got six first-place votes last year, five this year.
Cabrera was voted first or second on all 30 ballots. Trout got 19 votes for second, three for third and one each for fourth, fifth and seventh.
Cabrera won the triple crown last year, but his numbers arguably were better this year. He hit 44 home runs, same as last year. He drove in 137 runs, down from 139. But he raised his batting average from .330 to .348 and his OPS from .999 to 1.078. He led the majors in batting average, OPS and each of the components of OPS — on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
Trout, 22, batted .323 with 27 home runs and 33 stolen bases. He led the league in runs and walks.
Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles, who led the league with 53 home runs and 138 runs batted in, finished third.
Twitter: @BillShaikin
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