Alvarez, Crow-Armstrong Win MVP Awards in Unanimous Votes

Major League Baseball closed its awards week on Thursday, November 12, with two verdicts that left no room for argument. Yordan Alvarez won the American League Most Valuable Player award and Pete Crow-Armstrong won the National League award, and the Baseball Writers' Association of America vote made both of them unanimous: 30 first-place votes and 420 points each. Neither race was close — the runners-up in both leagues finished more than 150 points behind.

Crow-Armstrong, 24, built the National League's most complete season. He batted .280 with a .372 on-base percentage and a .570 slugging percentage for Chicago, shared the major league home run lead with Kyle Schwarber at 45, led the majors with 119 runs scored, and stole 41 bases. That made him the seventh player in major league history with a 40-home run, 40-steal season, and he paired it with the league's best center-field defense, posting 26 outs above average. He's the first Cubs player to win the award since Kris Bryant in 2016, and he ended Shohei Ohtani's run of three straight MVP awards.

Alvarez, 29, won the American League batting title at .316, posted a .432 on-base percentage and a .601 slugging percentage, and hit 42 home runs with 106 RBIs for Houston. He led the majors in all three slash-line categories, and he joined Aaron Judge and Miguel Cabrera as the only players since 1970 to win an American League batting title in a season of at least 40 home runs. He's the third Astros player to win the award, after Jeff Bagwell in 1994 and Jose Altuve in 2017.

Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays finished second in the American League with 267 points and 27 of the 30 second-place votes, and Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals was third with 188. Cam Schlittler, the Yankees' unanimous Cy Young Award winner, placed fourth. In the National League, Ohtani took second with 264 points and 26 second-place votes, and Milwaukee's Brice Turang finished third with 190.

The two unanimous MVPs completed a sweep the writers had never produced. Schlittler won the American League Cy Young Award unanimously on Wednesday, November 11, and Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski won the National League award unanimously, so all four of the BBWAA's major player awards went to unanimous winners in the same season for the first time. Ballots are cast before the postseason begins, so October didn't move a single vote.

The awards calendar leaves one honor outstanding. The Silver Slugger winners are announced on Tuesday, November 17, and Crow-Armstrong is a finalist in the National League outfield after a season that already brought him a Gold Glove Award, a Platinum Glove Award and a Hank Aaron Award.