MLB Awards Watch: The final ballot

1. player. 9. Kris Bryant did not lead the National League in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage or even wRC+, but he was easily the best player in the league this season. Bryant finished 2016 as the NL leader in fWAR (8.4) and bWAR (7.7) by a comfortable margin, and his .292/.385/.554 slash line was impressive on its own. Throw in the fact, then, that Bryant blasted 39 home runs and basically finished within the top ten of every major hitting category, and his candidacy comes into view. On top of that, Bryant proved to be an above-average defender at two different positions and, for the narrative-driven voters, he was the best player on what was easily the top team in the league. Any questions?. 3B/OF. Chicago Cubs. Kris Bryant

SS. Los Angeles Dodgers. Corey Seager. 2. player. 71. It is very weird to see a rookie landing this high on an MVP ballot, but if you can see beyond that, it makes sense. Seager’s overall candidacy depends on how much you value defense and positional impact, but I believe greatly in quality defense at a premium position, and so do many of the more advanced, all-encompassing statistics available. Seager finished behind only Bryant in fWAR (7.5) and comfortable within the top four in bWAR (6.1) with the difference being in how the two sites valued his defense. What I saw was a top-flight glove at shortstop, and with his bat playing quite well (137 wRC+, 26 home runs, .308/.365/.512 slash line), I’m all in on Corey Seager. He’s just not Kris Bryant.

1B. Atlanta Braves. Freddie Freeman. 3. player. 17. I. Do. Not. Care. About. The. Atlanta. Braves. Being. Bad. As. A. Team. <p>We’ll get to this argument on the AL side in a more prominent way, but Freeman’s individual contributions matter a lot more to me than what Atlanta didn’t do in the standings. To be fair, I’m nitpicking between Freeman, Colorado’s Nolan Arenado and players like Daniel Murphy, but Freeman finished within the top three in both fWAR (6.1) and bWAR (6.5) for a reason. He was awesome. Only Murphy had a higher wRC+ than Freeman’s 152, and his .302/.400/.569 slash line jumps off the page. In addition, the first baseman exhibited more power than most thought possible in blasting 34 home runs and, essentially, he was the best hitter in baseball from the beginning of May to the end of the season. Many people will ignore him completely based on a lack of team success, but he was pretty darn valuable to the Braves. </p>