Jose Abreu of the White Sox and Freddie Freeman of the Braves were voted 2020 Most Valuable Players Thursday, ahead of other Box-Toppers points leaders.
Box-Toppers Most Valuable Player award ballot
Here are Box-Toppers' ballot selections for the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) 2020 Most Valuable Player awards. The ballot required voters to pick the top 10 players in each league.Players are shown with their team and their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2020.
| AL Most Valuable Player | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Luke Voit | Yankees | 6.0 |
| 2 | Shane Bieber | Indians | 11.4 |
| 3 | Eloy Jimenez | White Sox | 5.5 |
| 4 | Max Kepler | Twins | 5.0 |
| 5 | Kyle Tucker | Astros | 5.0 |
| 6 | Lance Lynn | Rangers | 9.1 |
| 7 | Mike Trout | Angels | 4.5 |
| 8 | Jose Abreu | White Sox | 4.5 |
| 9 | Tim Anderson | White Sox | 4.5 |
| 10 | Kenta Maeda | Twins | 8.4 |
| NL Most Valuable Player | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Trevor Bauer | Reds | 10.0 |
| 2 | Yu Darvish | Cubs | 9.7 |
| 3 | Marcell Ozuna | Braves | 4.5 |
| 4 | Asdrubal Cabrera | Nationals | 4.5 |
| 5 | Trent Grisham | Padres | 4.5 |
| 6 | Dinelson Lamet | Padres | 9.0 |
| 7 | Jacob deGrom | Mets | 8.7 |
| 8 | Adam Duvall | Braves | 4.0 |
| 9 | Darin Ruf | Giants | 4.0 |
| 10 | Clayton Kershaw | Dodgers | 7.7 |
Abreu, who ranked sixth in Box-Toppers points among American League batters with 4.5, was voted AL MVP. Freeman, who ranked eighth in Box-Toppers points among National League batters with 3.5, was voted NL MVP.
Voting was done by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). The results were similar in the separate vote by the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA), in which Box-Toppers has a vote.
Box-Toppers points leaders were among the top 10 vote recipients for MVP in each league in BBWAA balloting. (See detailed MVP results below, including order of finish, vote totals and each player’s Box-Toppers points and rankings for 2020.)
In the AL, we chose Luke Voit of the Yankees, who led AL batters with 6.0 Box-Toppers points, 22nd among all players. Voit finished ninth in AL MVP voting.
In the NL, Marcell Ozuna of the Braves led NL batters with 4.5 Box-Toppers points. He finished sixth in NL MVP voting. However, Box-Toppers chose Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer as NL MVP because he had more than twice as many Box-Toppers points as Ozuna, 10.0, which was first among NL pitchers and second overall. Bauer finished 10th in NL MVP voting.
Most people decide MVP by looking at the accumulation of individual statistics at the end of the year combining that with the accumulation of anecdotes they remember throughout the season. But Box-Toppers, by design, avoids that, looking at each game as a discrete unit and determining by consistent objective measure, game-by-game, which player most helped that team to win that game. Hopefully, Box-Toppers avoids the echo-chamber, hype-machine bandwagon effect in which voters seem to consistently coalesce around the same few candidates.
This season’s small sample size—with the pandemic limiting the season to 60 games—produced little differentiation between the top candidates. For example, though Freeman ranked eighth in Box-Toppers points among NL batters, he finished only 1.0 point behind NL batting leader Ozuna (4.5). Partly due to the season’s small sample size, several players received MVP votes who had 0.0 Box-Toppers points, never earning Player of the Game honors once during the season, including:
Anthony Rendon of the Angels, who finished 10th in AL MVP voting.
David Fletcher of the Angels, who finished tied for 17th in AL MVP voting.
Salvador Perez of the Royals, who finished tied for 17th in AL MVP voting.
Dominic Smith of the Mets, who finished 13th in NL MVP voting.
Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals, who finished 15th in NL MVP voting.
Ian Happ of the Cubs, who finished tied for 18th in NL MVP voting.
Ryan Tepera of the Cubs, who finished tied for 18th in NL MVP voting.
Box-Toppers’ highest-ranking AL batter not to earn MVP votes was Eloy Jimenez of the White Sox, who ranked second among AL batters with 5.5 Box-Toppers points.
Box-Toppers’ highest-ranking NL batter not to earn MVP votes was Asdrubal Cabrera of the Nationals, who ranked second among AL batters with 4.5 Box-Toppers points. (While Ozuna and Cabrera had the same 2020 Box-Toppers point total, Ozuna ranks higher among NL batters because he has more 2019 Box-Toppers points—12.0 vs. 9.0.)
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The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America also voted Abreu and Freeman as their 2020 Most Valuable Player. Here are the reported IBWAA results:
AL MVP
1st Place: José Abreu, White Sox - 1,421 points
2nd Place: Jose Ramirez , Indians - 970 points
3rd Place: Shane Bieber, Indians- 857 points
NL MVP:
1st Place: Freddie Freeman, Braves - 1,587 points
2nd Place: Mookie Betts, Dodgers - 1,173 points
3rd Place: Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres- 947 points
Box-Toppers, as a member of the IBWAA, voted for Luke Voit of the Yankees as AL MVP and Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer as the NL MVP.
About Box-Toppers—Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
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American League Most Valuable Player Award voting
Jose Abreu of the White Sox was voted AL Most Valuable Player. Below are the AL players in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through 10th-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers points (BTP) for 2020 and their rank among AL batters (except in the case of pitchers, denoted with †, in which case their rank among AL pitchers is shown).| 1st-10th place votes | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AL player | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points | BTP | Rank | |
| 1 | José Abreu | White Sox | 1b | 21 | 8 | 1 | 374 | 4.5 | 6 | |||||||
| 2 | José Ramírez | Indians | 3b dh | 8 | 17 | 3 | 2 | 303 | 3.5 | 14 | ||||||
| 3 | DJ LeMahieu | Yankees | 2b | 1 | 5 | 15 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 230 | 3.5 | 13 | |||
| 4 | Shane Bieber | Indians | pi sp | 4 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 173 | 11.4 | 1† | |||
| 5 | Mike Trout | Angels | cf | 4 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 172 | 4.5 | 5 | |||
| 6 | Nelson Cruz | Twins | dh | 1 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 128 | 3.0 | 15 | ||||
| 7 | Tim Anderson | White Sox | ss | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 125 | 4.5 | 7 | ||
| 8 | Brandon Lowe | Rays | 2b rf | 1 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 104 | 1.0 | 98 | ||||
| 9 | Luke Voit | Yankees | 1b | 1 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 85 | 6.0 | 1 | ||||
| 10 | Anthony Rendon | Angels | 3b | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 42 | 0.0 | 125 | ||||
| 11 | Teoscar Hernandez | Blue Jays | rf | 1 | 6 | 8 | 1.5 | 51 | ||||||||
| 12 | Alex Verdugo | Red Sox | rf | 1 | 6 | 1.5 | 57 | |||||||||
| 13 | Liam Hendriks | Athletics | pi cp | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4.0 | 19† | ||||||||
| 14 | Hyun Jin Ryu | Blue Jays | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6.0 | 9† | ||||||||
| 15 | George Springer | Astros | rf cf | 2 | 4 | 2.0 | 34 | |||||||||
| 16 | Byron Buxton | Twins | cf | 1 | 2 | 1.0 | 89 | |||||||||
| 17 | Xander Bogaerts | Red Sox | ss | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 72 | |||||||||
| 17 | David Fletcher | Angels | ss lf 2b | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 138 | |||||||||
| 17 | Dallas Keuchel | White Sox | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 87† | |||||||||
| 17 | Kyle Lewis | Mariners | cf | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 110 | |||||||||
| 17 | Salvador Perez | Royals | ca | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 196 | |||||||||
| 17 | Eddie Rosario | Twins | lf dh | 1 | 1 | 2.0 | 40 | |||||||||
† When an AL pitcher received MVP votes, their Box-Toppers ranking is shown among AL pitchers.
National League Most Valuable Player Award voting
Freddie Freeman of the Braves was voted NL Most Valuable Player. Below are the NL players in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through 10th-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers points (BTP) for 2020 and their rank among NL batters (except in the case of pitchers, denoted with †, in which case their rank among NL pitchers is shown).| 1st-10th place votes | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL player | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Points | BTP | Rank | |
| 1 | Freddie Freeman | Braves | 1b ph | 28 | 2 | 410 | 3.5 | 8 | ||||||||
| 2 | Mookie Betts | Dodgers | rf | 2 | 21 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 268 | 2.5 | 23 | |||||
| 3 | Manny Machado | Padres | 3b ss | 2 | 16 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 221 | 3.0 | 21 | ||||
| 4 | Fernando Tatis Jr. | Padres | ss | 2 | 5 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 201 | 3.0 | 18 | |||
| 5 | Juan Soto | Nationals | dh lf | 3 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 172 | 2.0 | 35 | |||
| 6 | Marcell Ozuna | Braves | lf dh | 2 | 1 | 11 | 14 | 2 | 167 | 4.5 | 1 | |||||
| 7 | Trea Turner | Nationals | ss | 2 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 83 | 3.0 | 15 | ||||
| 8 | Mike Yastrzemski | Giants | rf | 1 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 81 | 1.0 | 113 | ||||
| 9 | Corey Seager | Dodgers | ss | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 43 | 3.5 | 13 | |||||
| 10 | Trevor Bauer | Reds | pi sp | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 32 | 10.0 | 1† | |||||
| 11 | Trevor Story | Rockies | ss | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 23 | 1.0 | 84 | ||||||
| 12 | Ronald Acuña Jr. | Braves | cf | 2 | 5 | 5 | 21 | 1.5 | 68 | |||||||
| 13 | Dominic Smith | Mets | 1b | 2 | 4 | 2 | 16 | 0.0 | 176 | |||||||
| 14 | Yu Darvish | Cubs | pi sp | 2 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 9.7 | 2† | |||||||
| 15 | Paul Goldschmidt | Cardinals | 1b | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 0.0 | 128 | |||||||
| 16 | Brandon Belt | Giants | 1b | 1 | 2 | 3.7 | 6 | |||||||||
| 16 | Wil Myers | Padres | rf 1b | 1 | 2 | 2.5 | 31 | |||||||||
| 18 | Max Fried | Braves | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 5.7 | 13† | |||||||||
| 18 | Ian Happ | Cubs | lf cf | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 221 | |||||||||
| 18 | Dansby Swanson | Braves | ss | 1 | 1 | 2.0 | 40 | |||||||||
| 18 | Ryan Tepera | Cubs | pi mr | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 235† | |||||||||
| 18 | Devin Williams | Brewers | pi mr | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 124† | |||||||||
† When an NL pitcher received MVP votes, their Box-Toppers ranking is shown among NL pitchers.