Yordan Alvarez Wins AL MVP Award

The Baseball Writers Association of America announced Thursday that Yordan Alvarez has been named the Most Valuable Player in the American League. Alvarez won the award unanimously, collecting all 30 first-place votes. Junior Caminero and Bobby Witt Jr. finished second and third, respectively. Alvarez has been an elite hitter for the entirety of his career. He took his game to another level at age 29, topping 40 home runs for the first time. Alvarez was the best offensive player in the sport this year, leading qualified hitters in all three slash stats (as well as OPS, of course). He batted .316/.432/.601 with 42 longballs in a career-high 692 plate appearances. Alvarez walked almost as often as he struck out while remaining arguably the premier power threat in the American League. Caminero and Alvarez tied for second in the AL and fourth in the majors with the 42 longballs. (Pete Alonso seized the AL home run crown with a two-homer game in the final weekend of the season, finishing the year at 43.) Alvarez scored 105 runs and drove in 106, a top three mark among AL hitters in both categories. He fairly comfortably beat out Chandler Simpson (.306) to win his first batting title and maintained a five-point edge on NL leader Gabriel Moreno in that regard. Alvarez had an even more convincing margin in OBP — .042 points clear of NL leader TJ Rumfield. He and presumptive NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong were the only qualifiers with a slugging percentage above .534, a mark that Alvarez cleared by .067 points. He tied for fourth among AL hitters with 34 doubles and easily paced the AL with 77 extra-base hits. This was the fifth time that Alvarez topped 30 home runs but his first cracking the 40+ milestone. He’d been held back a bit in previous years by poor injury luck. That was never more true than in 2025, when a broken right hand and a sprained left ankle limited him to 48 games. Alvarez was also named the AL Comeback Player of the Year for his resurgent offensive season. The Astros used Alvarez mostly at designated hitter to maximize his chance of staying healthy. He only started 24 games and played fewer than 200 innings in left field. That’s the ideal role moving forward, as the focus is understandably about having him in the lineup as often as possible. Alvarez is under contract for another two seasons at $26MM annually on the extension he signed in June 2022. Caminero was the biggest driver in the Rays finishing at the top of the American League and eventually securing the third pennant in club history. He played in all 162 games, hitting .276/.360/.524 over 702 plate appearances. He topped 40 homers for the second straight year and drove in 101 runs. This is his second straight top 10 MVP finish and his first time as a finalist. He turned 23 in July and figures to be among the favorites to win an MVP every season for the foreseeable future. Witt places in the top five in the balloting for a third straight season. He had an MVP-caliber season back in 2024. Unfortunately for him, that came in the same year that Aaron Judge had one of the best offensive seasons of all time. Witt’s offensive numbers haven’t been quite as exceptional over the last two years, though he remains the best shortstop in baseball and probably one of the top five players overall. He hit .281/.359/.441 with 18 homers and 45 stolen bases, missing a couple weeks in late July to a back issue. Witt led all shortstops with a fantastic 24 Outs Above Average and was a Gold Glove finalist. Tampa Bay’s Taylor Walls kept him from winning that award for a third straight season. Alvarez is the third player in Astros history to win an MVP, joining Jeff Bagwell (1994) and Jose Altuve (2017). All three finalists were from teams not frequently represented in this award. The Rays are one of three franchises — along with the Diamondbacks and Mets — never to have an MVP winner. Kansas City’s lone win came 46 years ago when George Brett won in 1980. Caminero received 27 second-place votes and placed among the top three for every voter. Witt picked up two second-place nods, while one voter had Cy Young winner Cam Schlittler as the MVP runner-up. Schlittler and Alonso rounded out the top five. Miguel Vargas, Rookie of the Year Kevin McGonigle, Randy Arozarena, Ben Rice and Willson Contreras finished sixth through tenth. The other players who received some down ballot support were Dylan Cease, Wilyer Abreu, Parker Messick, Dillon Dingler, Steven Kwan, Munetaka Murakami, Ceddanne Rafaela, Ezequiel Duran, Drew Rasmussen, Isaac Paredes and Cade Smith. Image courtesy of Dennis Lee, Imagn Images.