Angels’ Ohtani, Phillies’ Harper win MVP awards
Shohei Ohtani was unanimiously voted American League MVP on Thursday for a two-way season not seen since Babe Ruth, and Bryce Harper earned the National League honor for the second time.
Ohtani received all 30 first-place votes and 420 points in voting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Toronto first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was second with 29 seconds and 269 points, and Blue Jays infielder Marcus Semien
was third with 232 points. Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez got the other second-place vote.
Ohtani hit .257 with 46 homers, 100 RBIs and a .965 OPS as the Los Angeles Angels’ full-time designated hitter, and he went 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA in 23 starts with 156 strikeouts and 44 walks in 130 1⁄3
innings. It was the first full season on the mound for the 27-year-old right-hander following Tommy John surgery in 2019.
Harper received 17 of 30 first-place votes and 348 points from a separate panel. Washington outfielder Juan Soto was second with six firsts and 274 points, and San Diego shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. was third with two firsts and 244 points.
Elsewhere: While insisting Major League Baseball is focused on reaching a labor deal, Commissioner Rob Manfred
signaled that owners likely will lock out players if the current contract expires Dec. 1 without a new agreement. Baseball had eight work stoppages from 197295, but there has been labor peace since a 7 1⁄2-month
strike began in August 1994 and forced the cancellation of the World Series for the first time in 90 years . ... Toronto Blue Jays ace Robbie Ray left little doubt. Milwaukee Brewers strikethrowing machine Corbin Burnes won a split decision. Both went to sleep Wednesday night as firsttime Cy Young Award winners. Ray secured 29 of 30 first-place votes to win the American League honor. Burnes edged the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler for the NL award, as both received 12 first-place votes. ... Justin Verlander
reached a $25 million deal to remain with the Houston Astros as he comes back from Tommy John surgery, and Brandon Belt accepted an $18.4 million qualifying offer from the San Francisco Giants . ... Two months with the Toronto Blue Jays was enough to make Jose Berrios change his mind about waiting one more year to reach free agency. Berrios finalized a $131 million, seven-year deal to stay with the Blue Jays, passing up the opportunity to become a free agent next offseason . ... The Colorado Rockies agreed to a $14.5 million, three-year contract with catcher Elias Diaz.
His deal was announced Thursday and covers one season of arbitration eligibility and two years of free agency. Diaz, who turned 31 on Wednesday, hit .246 last season with a career-best 18 homers, tied for third-most among National League catchers. He also threw out 42 percent of base stealers,
a mark behind only that of Kansas City’s Salvador Perez. ... The New York Mets were close to completing a deal Wednesday night to hire Billy Eppler toa four-year contract as general manager, according to a person familiar with the negotiations . ... A new era of big-league baseball in Cleveland is about to start. The Indians will officially transition to Guardians on Friday, completing a name change that has been happening in stages over the past few months.
ETC.
Tennis: The top three players have advanced to the semifinals at the ATP Finals at Turin, Italy. Thirdranked Alexander Zverev joined No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in the last four at the season-ending event for the top eight players by beating Hubert Hurkacz 6-2, 6-4. Having qualified second in his group behind Medvedev, Zverev’s semifinal opponent will be Djokovic, who won the other group. Medvedev’s semifinal opponent will be determined on Friday when
Andrey Rublev meets
Casper Ruud on the final
day of round-robin play . ...
Garbine Muguruza’s trip to Mexico started last week with a taste of tequila. After winning the WTA Finals on Wednesday, it ended the same way. Muguruza defeated Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 7-5 in the final for her first title at the WTA’s elite, season-ending championships. She became the oldest champion at 28 since
Serena Williams in 2014, and finishes the season at No. 3 in the rankings, her best performance since 2017, when she was No. 1.
Soccer: Sweden’s top soccer leagues signed an Amnesty International protest that gives “a red card to FIFA” and demands that the governing body stand up for the rights of migrant workers in Qatar during next year’s World Cup. Qatar has faced criticism amid reports of discriminatory laws and conditions for the migrant workers preparing the country for the tournament . ... Members of Afghanistan’s women’s youth development soccer team arrived in Britain after being flown from Pakistan with the help of a New York rabbi, a U.K. soccer club and