On Monday night, the Baseball Writers' Association of America announced the three finalists in each league for the 2020 MVP award.
Most Valuable Player (announced on Nov. 12)
NL Finalists: Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Manny Machado
2020 Stats:
Mookie Betts: Betts finished the 2020 season hitting .292/.366/.562 with 47 runs (4th in the NL), 16 home runs (3rd), 39 RBIs, a .928 OPS, and 10 stolen bases. He won his second World Series in a three-season span
Freddie Freeman: Freeman tested positive for COVID-19 in July 2020, before the season began. He finished the season hitting .341/.462/.640 with 13 home runs and 53 RBIs. He led the major leagues with 23 doubles and 51 runs scored.
Manny Machado: He hit .304/.370/.580 while finishing third in the National League with 16 home runs and 47 RBIs. He also led all qualifying third basemen with a .987 fielding percentage.
AL Finalists: Jose Abreu, DJ LeMahieu, Jose Ramirez
2020 Stats:
Jose Abreu: He batted .317/.370/.617, equalling a career high in batting average while setting a new career best for slugging. Abreu led the American League in slugging percentage, RBIs (60), games played (60), hits (76), extra base hits (34), total bases (148), double plays grounded into (10; leading the league for the second consecutive year), and errors by a first baseman (5), while also finishing in the top 10 in home runs (19th, 2nd) and doubles (15th, 9th)
DJ LeMahieu: LeMahieu ended the season with a .364 batting average, which was the highest in the American League, and also led the AL in OBP (.421) and OPS (1.011), as well as fewest errors by a second baseman (4). He was the 4th Yankee to lead the majors in hitting and the 9th Yankee to win an AL batting title. LeMahieu was also the second player ever to win a batting title in each league.
Jose Ramirez: Ramírez concluded the season batting .292, .386 OBP, and career-highs in OPS (.993), slugging percentage (.607), and OPS+ (163). He also tallied 64 hits, 45 runs scored, 16 doubles, 17 home runs, 46 RBI, 133 total bases, 34 extra base hits, 31 walks, and ten stolen bases.[50] Per FanGraphs' version of WAR, he led the major leagues with 3.4. He also tied for the AL lead in runs scored with Tim Anderson, and in extra base hits with José Abreu, both of the White Sox. Ramírez placed second in OPS and total bases, third in slugging percentage, doubles, home runs, and RBI, fifth in stolen bases and adjusted OPS+, and tenth in walks