2021 Most Valuable Player: Merrill Kelly

It was another broad selection of responses, but in the end, Merrill Kelly prevailed, despite getting just 33% of the votes. This probably counts as a bit of a surprise - personally, I was expecting Ketel Marte to prevail. But I think perhaps the fact that none of the position players appeared even a hundred times for the Diamondbacks this year, may have hampered their chances. There was also a significant amount of vote splitting. While no-one got more than one-third of the votes, none of the five candidates (including the nuclear option of “No award”) got less than 14% either.

This does present me with something of a dilemma. I have previously written about Kelly, when he won the ‘Pitcher of the Year’ award, earlier in the ‘Pitties. I also don’t want to write too much about him, since his player review is still due to come. Michael will be covering him in due course (is Kelly #1, befitting his MVP status? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see...). So I think I’ll just refer you to the earlier piece linked above, and get on with the rest of my day. Here’s the full list of SnakePit awards this year:

• Most Valuable Player: Merrill Kelly
• Pitcher of the Year: Merrill Kelly
• Unsung Hero: Josh Rojas
• Rookie of the Year: Pavin Smith
• Game of the Year: 4/25, 2-for-1 special vs. Atlanta
• Single-game performance: Tyler Gilbert’s no-hitter
• Play of the Year: Josh Rojas robs Tatis

With the lockout still showing no signs of reaching an end, I’m going to have to find something else to fuel the relentless demand of the SnakePit machine for content. :) I’ve actually got an idea for something with a similar structure (open thread, nominations/ballot, and winner), so tune in on Wednesday for that!