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MLB announced on Monday the finalists for American League Most Valuable Player for the 2021 season. Los Angeles Angels DH/SP Shohei Ohtani, and Toronto Blue Jays 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and 2B Marcus Semien are your finalists for the award this season. Ohtani is expected to run away with the voting after having a massive season at the plate and on the mound.
Major League Baseball will announce the winner of AL MVP on November 18th.
Ohtani was third in the AL in home runs with 46 while accumulating 100 RBI with a .965 OPS over 155 games this season. On top of that, Ohtani had a 9-2 record with a 3.18 ERA and 156 strikeouts over 23 starts. We haven’t seen a season like this from a duel player, ever, to be honest. It was unprecedented and the only real knock on Ohtani is he didn’t play at all in the postseason.
Vlad Jr. finished tied for first in the AL in home runs with 48, along with Royals C Salvador Perez, who was not a finalist for the award. Vlad Jr. hit .311 with 111 RBI and an insane 1.002 OPS over 161 games for the Jays, who were pretty close to securing an AL Wild Card spot. His teammate, Semien, had a career year with 45 HRs and 102 RBI, both career highs. Semien hit .265 with an .873 OPS but had a WAR of 7.1.