Baseball fans, your long national nightmare is over. After a debate that raged over the better part of the season, Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers was named the 2012 AL MVP, beating out the LA Angels of Anaheim’s Mike Trout, who earlier in the week received the Rookie of the Year Award.
In the end it wasn’t even as close as most had expected. Cabrera received 22 of the first-place votes, just over 75% of the 28 available, with the remaining 6 going to Trout. The numbers were almost reversed on the second-place votes, with the only difference being one vote for third-place finisher Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers (Rounding out the top nominees: Robinson Cano of the New York Yankees and Beltre’s teammate Josh Hamilton). Cabrera finished with a total of 362 points, a commanding lead over Trout’s 281.
This season’s MVP race took on a greater scope than usual, blossoming into a referendum between new-school and old-school values. The former group parsed offensive stats endlessly to demonstrate that Trout was the model of a complete ball player, although (or possibly despite the fact) he didn’t play a full season. On the other hand, the latter group embraced Cabrera as a combination of on-field production and intangible contributions.
Another hot button was the question of how much of a role defensive ability should play in deciding a winner. Cabrera has long been considered the best hitter in baseball, and MVP voting has historically favored candidates who swing a hot bat. This year many argued that defensive play should be equally important, and while Cabrera has been recognized for moving from first base to third to accommodate new teammate Prince Fielder, there’s no question that Trout was far and away superior in that category.
For the time being, at least, tradition seems to have carried the day as voters appear to have been swayed by two major factors. The first is Cabrera’s Triple Crown win, which recognizes a hitter who leads the league in the traditional Big Three statistics: batting average, RBI and home runs. Last accomplished in 1967 by Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski, it’s led to the MVP Award for the last three winners, including Baltimore’s Frank Robinson in 1966 and the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle in 1956. Second is the fact that the Tigers, unlike the Angels, went to the playoffs. While there is precedent for an MVP to come from a losing team (perhaps most notably Andre Dawson from the 1987 last-place Chicago Cubs), preference is generally given to a player from a team that reaches the postseason.
Many feel the MVP has been a long time coming to Miguel Cabrera. In a career already considered to be Hall-of-Fame worthy he’s come close to winning only once before, when he finished as runner-up to perennial rival Josh Hamilton in 2010. It marks the first time a Venezuelan-born player has won, and while it’s a back-to-back win for the Tigers after Justin Verlander in 2011, Cabrera is the first Tiger position player to receive the MVP since Hank Greenberg in 1940.
As for Mike Trout, although he finished in second place it’s unlikely that anyone considers him a loser. A freshman season of truly historic proportions earned him Rookie of the Year, and there’s every reason to expect him to be in the MVP running for several years to come. In fact, it’s not out of the question that he could face another showdown with Miguel Cabrera for the award.