Abreu of White Sox, Braves’ Freeman voted league MVPs
Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman easily won the NL MVP award Thursday, topping off a trying year that saw him become so ill with COVID-19 he prayed “please don’t take me.”
Chicago White Sox slugger José Abreu earned the AL MVP, a reward for powering his team back into the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
Freeman got 28 of the 30 first-place ballots in voting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts got the other two firsts to finish second and San Diego third baseman Manny Machado was third.
In a season affected from spring training to the World Series by the pandemic, perhaps it was fitting the final major award of the year went to someone infected by the virus.
Three weeks before the delayed opening day in late July, Freeman’s body temperature spiked at 104.5 degrees and he lost his sense of taste and smell. At one point, he recalled, he said a little prayer because “I wasn’t ready.”
“I got off to such a slow start,” Freeman said on the MLB Network after Dale Murphy, a two- time NL MVP with the Braves, announced the winner. “I just didn’t know when I would get my legs back.”
The 31-year-old Freeman quickly found his footing, batting .341 with 13 home runs and 53 RBIs while playing all 60 games. A powerful lefty batter with the ability to spray the ball all over the field, he led the majors in hitting 23 doubles and scoring 51 runs.
Boosted by the four-time All-Star, the Braves won the NL East and came within one win of reaching the World Series for the first time since 1999.
Betts was bidding to join Frank Robinson as the only players to win the MVP in both leagues. The 28-yearold outfielder earned the AL honor in 2018 while leading Boston to the World Series championship.
Traded by the Red Sox to Los Angeles early this year, Betts hit .292 with 16 hom
ers and 39 RBIs and was the catalyst in the Dodgers’ run to their first title since 1988.
Machado hit .304 with 16 homers and 47 RBIs as San Diego made its first playoff appearance since 2006. Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. finished fourth in the voting and Washington outfielder Juan Soto was fifth.
The Giants’ Mike Yastrzemski finished eighth in NL MVP voting after a season in which he recorded 28 extra-base hits, posted a .400 on-base percentage and finished with a .968 OPS.
Yastrzemski’s eighthplace finish was the best for a Giants player since catcher Buster Posey placed sixth in 2014. Posey is the last Giants player to win the award as he was the top vote-getter in 2012.
First baseman Brandon Belt also received one ninth-place NL MVP vote, marking the first time multiple Giants players have appeared on MVP ballots in the same season since 2016 when Posey, shortstop Brandon Crawford and left-handed starter Madison Bumgarner all finished among the top 16 players.
Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez finished second in the AL MVP voting and Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu was third.
Abreu led the majors with 60 RBIs and 148 total bases, and topped the AL with 76 hits and a .617 slugging percentage. He played in all 60 games as Chicago claimed a wild-card spot.
The 33-year- old Abreu batted .317 with 19 homers and enjoyed a 22-game hitting streak along the way.
Abreu was the 2014 AL Rookie of the Year and is a three-time All-Star.
Abreu was the third Cuban-born player to be an MVP, along with Jose Canseco and Zoilo Versalles.
AL Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber of Cleveland was fourth and Angels outfielder Mike Trout, a threetime AL MVP, was fifth.
hIANTS ASSISTANT KATZ TO JOIN WiITc SOX AS aOAai >> Tony La Russa is reportedly set to announce that Ethan Katz will be the White Sox pitching coach in 2021.
Katz’s departure marks the first for a Giants coach under Gabe Kapler, who assembled the largest coaching staff in the major leagues by hiring 13 assistants ahead of his first season with the club. Katz was one of four pitching coaches and he made a strong impression with many of the Giants’ young relievers and was often seen working closely with starters in the bullpen before games.
La Russa has never worked with Katz in a professional capacity, but the former Giants assistant does have a strong relationship with Chicago White sox ace Lucas Giolito. Katz, 37, was a pitching coach at Harvard-Westlake High when Giolito and fellow major leaguers Jack Flaherty (Cardinals) and Max Fried (Braves) all pitched in the same high school rotation.
Katz’s hiring rules out the possibility of a reunion for La Russa and longtime pitching coach Dave Duncan, who worked together when La Russa managed the A’s and St. Louis Cardinals.
ANhcLS ScLcaT KRAVcS eRONT OeeIac ASSISTANT AS NcXT hM >> The Angels hired Perry Minasian, who spent the past three years as the Atlanta Braves assistant general manager, to be their new general manager, according to the Orange County Register.
Minasian replaces Billy Eppler, who was fired after the Angels’ fifth consecutive losing season.
Minasian, 40, began his life in baseball helping his father, who was the Texas Rangers clubhouse manager. Minasian then became a scout with the Rangers, before moving on to spend nine years in the Toronto Blue Jays front office and the past three with the Braves.