Atlanta Braves

2020 MVP Winners Share More than Honors This Year

The 2020 Major League Baseball season, due to the coronavirus, transformed from its usual 162 game marathon into a short, 60 game sprint. Because of these unforeseen circumstances and shortened regular season, a single slump was enough to take someone out of potential MVP consideration. Now that the season has come and gone, it is time to celebrate the best of the best from this odd, but memorable, 2020 season. The 2020 MVP Winners have been announced and there is no better place to start the celebration than with the pair who took home the award.

The Winners

For just the fourth time in MLB history, and the first time since 2006, two first baseman have been crowned the MVP for each of their respective leagues. The White Sox’s Jose Abreu (AL) and Braves’s Freddie Freeman (NL) got the hardware as each helped lead their teams to the postseason. Today, we look at what each of these players did throughout 2020 in order to earn the Most Valuable Player award:

AL: Jose Abreu

Jose Abreu is the 28th player in Major League Baseball history to win both an MVP and a ROY award in his career. Throughout his 7-year career (all with the White Sox), Abreu has been extremely consistent with a .294 batting average (1,114 hits in 4,168 plate appearances) with 233 doubles, 14 triples, 198 homeruns, 671 RBIs, and a .870 OPS. However, in 2020, Abreu stepped his production up to another level. He finished the regular season first in RBIs (60), second in homeruns (19), posted a solid .317 average, and was among the top 10 in OPS (.987). His value didn’t only fill up the offensive stat sheet, he was a solid on the field.

Coming into the season, the White Sox were considered an up-and-coming squad and were thought by many to be “a year away” from being competitive. With the help of Abreu and his astounding 2.6 WAR (wins above replacement), they managed a record of 35-25, while finishing just a game out of winning the AL Central and securing the #3 seed in the playoffs. The South Siders wound up with the #7 seed and faced the surging #2 seeded Oakland Athletics in the Wild Card round. They ultimately fell in a hard fought series of 2 games to 1, while showing the baseball world they aren’t the “cellar dwellers” anymore.

After edging out players like Yankees’ star, but free agent, second baseman DJ LeMahieu and Cleveland’s switch hitting Jose Ramirez to win the honor, the Cuban born 33 year old Abreu said via Zoom call that “you can’t imagine the feeling” of winning his first ever MVP award. Chicago and Abreu hope to build upon 2020’s success and eventually turn his regular season MVP award into a World Series MVP.

NL: Freddie Freeman

In a season where Atlanta lost six key starting pitchers due to multiple reasons, Freddie Freeman led an offense that proved capable of picking up the slack. Freeman has always been a solid player and always seems to be in consideration of MVP voting, while posting a career .295 batting average (1,524 hits in 5,965 plate appearances) with 342 doubles, 23 triples, 240 homeruns, 858 RBIs, and a .892 OPS. However, in 2020, Freeman finally elevated his play above everyone else’s. Playing all 60 games this year, Freeman ranked second overall in the NL in batting average (.341), tallied 73 hits, a league leading 23 doubles, and ranked second in the NL in RBIs (53) and OPS (1.102). Freeman also showed his worth to his team by his 2.9 WAR (wins above replacement) which was huge in helping the Braves, like the White Sox, go 35-25 and get the #2 seed in the postseason.

The Braves ultimately lost out to the eventual World Series Champion LA Dodgers in a hard fought, seven game series where Freeman continued his strong 2020 campaign and almost brought his team to the Fall Classic. If this year wasn’t so odd and Freeman was given 102 more games on top of these 60, he would have had an all-time season. Given more pitching depth and the potential return of Marcell Ozuna, look for Freeman and the Braves to be extremely competitive in 2021 with a possible MVP repeat.

-Alex Wolfe

Copyright © 2019 | Off The Bench Baseball

To Top