The MLB awards finished up for the 2014 season this week and Clayton Kershaw was crowned the NL MVP as a pitcher, while a three year coronation played out for Mike Trout, who was selected as the unanimous winner in the AL for the Most Valuable Player.
Trout had come in second the past two years and the voters felt it was finally time for him to win, while Kershaw followed up his NL Cy Young award with an MVP award. Trout finished second to Miguel Cabrera in those seasons and now he is the only player along with Mickey Mantle to win it after two years of coming in second place. Trout also became the youngest player at 23 years old to win the award unanimously.
Trout had another great season, hitting .287 with 111 RBIs as well as 36 home runs, which were a career high. Trout also was tops in the AL in runs scored and total bases and that helped make things unanimous. Trout also was best of all position players with a WAR of 7.9 and the fact that no one else had an "outstandingly ridic" season helped the unanimous vote. Victor Martinez came in second, although some could argue that he deserved art least one first place vote.
Clayton Kershaw won as a pitcher and he beat out Giancarlo Stanton and Andrew McCutchen for the award. Kershaw had a fantastic season and was the first pitcher to win the NL MVP and Cy Young since back in 1968 when Bob Gibson did it. Kershaw led the majors in ERA for the fourth straight season and had 239 strikeouts in just 198 innings this year.
"If you would've told me this before the season started, I would've just laughed at you," Trout said to MLB Network. "It's just an unbelievable feeling."
"You know you're a finalist, but I guess I never really anticipated to win that, especially when you're associated with guys like and Andrew and Giancarlo," Kershaw said. "To say you're MVP, I don't know if I could ever get used to that, but it's obviously a huge honor."
