Best of the best
Status on top team bolsters Bregman’s MVP bid vs. Trout
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Alex Bregman grabbed the bright blue robe lying inside his locker. A camera and four reporters surrounded him. Bregman wore a wide smile. This time, he wanted to don the garb during a postgame interview.
After each of their franchise-record 107 wins during the regular season, the Astros awarded this piece of wrestling-inspired attire to a player and pitcher of the game. Estimating how many times Bregman received it is impossible. None compared to the last.
“They gave me the robe and basically said that all of them would vote for me (for MVP),” Bregman said.
Suddenly, he struggled to find words.
“That made me … it just meant a lot,” Bregman said. “I’m thankful for them. It was a good year.”
Teammates bestowed Bregman the honor in homage to his season, not just his Sunday. The 2019 campaign was the best of the 25-yearold’s still-brief career.
He buoyed a battered and bruised Houston infield during the first half, the lone constant amid weekly upheaval. Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa combined to spend 111 games on the injured list. Fifty-nine of Bregman’s 150 defensive starts were as a shortstop. He committed three errors in 83 chances there.
“He just slid over to shortstop like it was nothing. And you don’t find players that can do that,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I know it doesn’t seem like there’s much difference between third and short, but there’s a tremendous amount of difference.”
The position was not foreign to Bregman, who played shortstop throughout his college career at LSU. Demands at the major league level are more arduous, though, especially within an Astros alignment that calls for ample shifts. Most times as a shortstop, Breg
man played either directly up the middle or on the right side of second base.
Bregman started at shortstop again Sunday. He finished the game with two walks and a run-scoring single. Hinch removed him from the game following the fourth inning. During his final plate appearance, faint “M-V-P” chants rang out from traveling Astros fans at Angel Stadium.
“In some ways, I wish they’d announce the MVP before the Division Series, because if he wins it, he’s going to want to go prove it,” Hinch said. “And if he doesn’t, he’s going to want to go prove it even more.”
The 30 ballots from Baseball Writers Association of America members are due Tuesday. The American League Most Valuable Player will not be announced until mid-November.
For five months, the winner seemed a foregone conclusion. Angels superstar outfielder Mike Trout tore through the American League, authoring perhaps the best season of his superb career. But he last played on Sept. 7, and foot surgery on Sept. 15 sidelined him for the remainder
of the season.
Trout played 134 games, 22 fewer than Bregman. Still, he bested Bregman in home runs (45-41) and was superior in on-base percentage (.438-.423), slugging percentage (.645-.592) and OPS 1.083-1.015).
Bregman (8.4) overtook Trout (8.2) and led all American League position players in Baseball-References’s wins above replacement calculation. Trout kept the lead in FanGraphs’ tabulation of the same metric by 0.2.
Trout otherwise bests Bregman in almost every advanced metric. OPS+ takes into account all external factors and normalizes a batter’s OPS across the entire league. Trout’s was 185. Bregman sat at 162. wRC+ is another normalizing statistic, only for runs created. Trout beat Bregman by 12.
Bregman drew nine more walks and drove in eight more runs, all numbers he accumulated during Trout’s late-September absence. Bregman’s .296 batting average was better, too, but the number has diminished meaning during this era. Still, before Sunday’s game, Hinch had a plan.
“I’m going to go inside today and say, ‘Hey, man, you have to go 4-for-4 to hit .300,’ ” Hinch said prior to the 8-4 win. “He’s going to look at me and say, ‘Leave me in the game.’
“That’s just how he thinks. He’s proud to finish the season on the field.”
The team around Trout was abysmal. On Monday, its 90 losses got manager Brad Ausmus fired after his first season.
Trout will not play in the postseason, but in 171 regular-season plate appearances against teams that will, he posted an .840 OPS and hit eight home runs. Bregman, in 199 plate appearances against playoff teams, hit nine home runs and accumulated an .875 OPS.
Whether voters hold Trout culpable for the calamitous situation around him — and reward Bregman for the brilliant one to which he contributes — could decide the vote. Bregman played more games, had more plate appearances and scored more runs than any other player on the best team in baseball.
“It was an awesome season for us,” said Bregman, whose answer was interruped.
“M-V-P,” Justin Verlander chanted as he walked past the interview scrum. “MV-P.”
Bregman chuckled and continued.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “all of us in this clubhouse set out to win the World Series in the beginning of the year. To get the opportunity to go play for it, that’s really what’s most important to me.”