Paul Goldschmidt and Jean Segura get MVP votes

Paul Goldschmidt finished eleventh in the balloting, being mentioned on eleven of the thirty ballots submitted to the Baseball Writers Association of America, in spots ranging from eighth to tenth. That resulted in a total of eighteen points for him; as noted, it was his third time scoring a mention, having finished runner-up in both 2013 and 2015. While it was quite a drop for Goldschmidt, he fared rather better than the man whom he trailed last season, Bryce Harper of the Nationals, who failed to trouble the voters at all [the 2013 winner, Andrew McCutchen, was also notable by his absence].

Two places back off Goldschmidt can be found Jean Segura, who enjoyed his first-ever points on any of the end of season awards. He was mentioned on ten ballots, like Goldschmidt ranging from eighth to tenth place on those. It’s the first time since 2002, when Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling did it, that the Diamondbacks have had two players finish in the top 13 for MVP voting. [They’ve come close a few times, getting #14 on more than one occasion, such as last year with A.J. Pollock]. It’ll be interesting to compare how the SnakePit MVP voting shakes down.

To no-one’s great surprise, the MVP award went to Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs, who got all but one of the available first-place votes, the other going to the Nationals’ Daniel Murphy. Bryant became the second NL player to win MVP the season after taking home the Rookie of the Year trophy, following Ryan Howard of the Phillies. That missing first-place ballot denied him the chance to become the first ever player to win both awards in consecutive years unanimously. The Dodgers’ Corey Seager was the highest-ranked player from the NL West, finishing third behind Bryant and Murphy.