As the Chicago Cubs swept a three-game series against the Dodgers at Wrigley Field in early August, Pete Crow-Armstrong was asked about the race for the National League MVP award with four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani.
“I think if you guys want to talk about all this back and forth, I really should go get in the lab and start pitching. I really should,” Crow-Armstrong said, doubling down on a joke he first made during the All-Star festivities.
He didn’t pitch. But neither did Ohtani after July 3 and Crow-Armstrong pulled away to win the 2026 NL MVP award, which was announced Thursday. Crow-Armstrong, a former Harvard-Westlake standout, received all 30 first-place votes in balloting from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Ohtani finished second, receiving 26 of 30 second-place votes and two third-place votes. Brewers second baseman Brice Turang (Corona Santiago High) finished a distant third in the voting.
In the American League, Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez was also a unanimous choice as MVP. The 29-year-old Alvarez originally signed with the Dodgers as an international free agent out of Cuba in June 2016 then was traded to the Houston Astros (for reliever Josh Fields) less than two months later – without ever putting on a uniform in the Dodgers’ farm system.
Alvarez threatened to win the Triple Crown in the AL in 2026, winning the batting title with a .316 average and finishing second in both home runs (42) and RBIs (106).
The MVP frontrunner in the NL through July 3 when he made 14 starts with a 1.79 ERA, knee and biceps injuries ended Ohtani’s pitching in July and impacted his offensive performance. Over the final two months of the season, he hit just .232 with a .745 OPS, went on the injured list in early September and hit his last regular-season home run on Aug. 18.
Appearing on the MLB Network show announcing the MVP winners, Ohtani called the 2026 season “very frustrating.”
“Quite honestly, our team didn’t do that well in the playoffs,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “Personally, like I said, I was frustrated with my performance overall this season. In a nutshell, it wasn’t a great season for me personally.”
Ohtani did become the first player in MLB history to finish in the top three of MVP voting for six consecutive seasons. (Ted Williams had a six-season run in the top three but it was interrupted by his military service during World War II.)
Crow-Armstrong hit .280 with a .942 OPS and tied with Kyle Schwarber for the major-league lead in home runs (45). Twenty-one of those home runs came in the final two months of the season as he pulled away in the MVP race. He also finished second in the NL in stolen bases (41) and third in RBIs (107) and led in runs scored (119). Crow-Armstrong, 24, is the seventh player in MLB history to have a 40/40 season.
And he was also a difference-maker on defense. Crow-Armstrong won his second consecutive Gold Glove award in center field and added the Platinum Glove award as the best overall defender in the National League. He led the majors with 26 Outs Above Average and 23 Runs Prevented, according to Baseball Savant.
This year is the first time in MLB history that both MVP and Cy Young award winners in both leagues were all unanimous selections.
More to come on this story.