John Matthews
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) In the end, it wasn’t even a race.
The Baseball Writers of America Thursday unanimously named Washington Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper the National League’s Most Valuable Player for 2015, beating out Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt and Cincinnati’s Joey Votto for the honor.
In garnering all 30 first-place votes, Harper became just the seventh unanimous MVP in National League history, and the youngest as well. At 23, Harper, in fact, is younger than the NL Rookie of the Year, Kris Harper.
Harper, who was voted in one anonymous poll of players last spring as baseball’s most overrated player, proved his doubters wrong by posting some of the gaudiest offensive numbers in baseball history, leading the majors in on-base percentage (.460), slugging (.649) and wins against replacement (9.9).
Harper also tied for the NL lead in homers (42) and had the second-best average in the NL (.330). He also ranked fourth among NL right fielders with seven defensive runs saved and was a Gold Glove finalist.
The Las Vegas native has been known as a baseball savant since childhood, and at 16 was featured on the cover of Sports Ilustrated as a future major league star. His MVP win comes three years after his major league debut season, in which he picked up Rookie of the Year honors.
Harper, who was 22 years and 353 days old on the final day of the season, becomes the fourth-youngest MVP in MLB history and the youngest since Cal Ripken in 1983. Harper is the youngest NL MVP since Johnny Bench won the award in 1970.
That leaves him plenty of time to win the award again. Can he do it?
That’s a clown question, bro.
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