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A sixty game regular season didn’t afford players much of an opportunity to distinguish themselves from their peers. Plenty of players made the most of the shortened schedule and had tremendous seasons. But how do you determine which player was most valuable over such a short time frame? It would appear the voters for the 2020 DTBL Most Valuable Player award had many different thoughts on that. In quite possibly the most competitive award vote in league history, not one player received even half of the available points. Five different guys received a first place tally and four others were ranked in the top three on at least one ballot. A group of four players finished within four points of each other at the top of the results table. And finally, two players tied for the ultimate prize. Cougars first baseman Jose Abreu and Demigods shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. are the 2020 DTBL Co-Most Valuable Players.
Jose Abreu has been a steady force for the Cougars since 2015. But prior to this year, he had never received so much as a single MVP vote and has never been named a DTBL All-Star. This year, however, he was clearly among the league’s elite hitters. He led the league with 60 RBI. His 19 home runs trailed only Luke Voit. He also hit .317 with 43 runs. The batting average was easily a career high for Abreu and the pace he set in those counting stats would have been personal bests as well. Being among the leaders in runs batted in is nothing new for Abreu though. He finished second with 123 a year ago and has had at least 90 RBI in every season but one, prior to this season. Abreu’s 4.4 Batting PAR ranked fourth in the league, which is an unusually low ranking for a MVP. But the margins were so small that distinguishing between players based on that stat alone didn’t make a lot of sense this year. He was just 0.2 points behind the leader (Tatis).
Abreu was selected by the Cougars with the first overall pick in the 2015 Draft. By first overall pick standards, perhaps his career had been a slight disappointment prior to this year. But he’s hardly been a bust. He finished fourth for the Rookie of the Year award in 2015, following a strong first season. His best full season was probably last year when he .284 with 33 homers and 123 RBI and a career high 5.4 PAR. He almost certainly would have blown past that figure this year though with a full schedule. He’s now finished with at least 4.0 PAR in four of his six DTBL seasons. Abreu was a major reason why the Cougars finished second in the league in batting points.
In case you didn’t get a chance to read the Rookie of the Year article, here is a quick recap of Fernando Tatis Jr.’s season. The first overall selection in this year’s draft lived up to the hype and then some. Tatis led the league with 4.6 Batting PAR. He hit .277 with 17 home runs and 11 stolen bases. Only five players had more steals and only two hit more home runs than Tatis. Nobody exceeded his total in both of those categories. He also led the league with 50 runs scored.
While many players have come close in recent years, including Ronald Acuna last year, Tatis is the first player to win both the DTBL Rookie of the Year and DTBL Most Valuable Player in the same season since Ryan Howard in 2006. Jake Arrieta had been the last person to win a pair of the three major awards, taking the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year in 2015. While Tatis’ resume is quite impressive, he wasn’t a lock to be the top finishing Demigod in this vote. First baseman Freddie Freeman also garnered strong support. Tatis and Freeman were the primary reasons why the Demigods had the league’s most improved offense in 2020.
As a White Sox fan, I’m reluctant to even mention this, but Tatis and Abreu very easily could have been teammates. However, the Sox dealt Tatis to San Diego for Big Game James Shields in 2016. Oops. I don’t think this is the first time that we have had co-MVPs. In fact, I have a faint recollection of this happening in one of the league’s first couple seasons. Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned before, my records are lacking on awards voting from the first decade of the league’s existence. This data is likely sitting on an old hard drive that I still posses, so maybe I can fill in the blanks later.
The voting for this award was all over the map. Abreu received the most first place votes with four, but didn’t garner any second or third place tallies and was entirely left off one ballot. He accumulated a total of 49 points, which was matched by Tatis, but in a different fashion. Tatis received three first place votes along with a pair of seconds. But he was also left off two ballots. Perhaps the top stealth candidate for this award was the guy who finished third. Beanballers shortstop Trea Turner was not among the players strongly considered for the National League MVP award. He was an extremely valuable fantasy player, however, racking up impressive totals in all five offensive categories. Turner hit .335 with a dozen homers and a dozen stolen bases. He scored 46 runs and knocked in 41. His 4.4 Batting PAR was a smidge ahead of Abreu. Turner only received one first place vote, but was the top choice for runner-up with three seconds. He finished with 47 points, just two behind Abreu and Tatis. Komodos third baseman Jose Ramirez was also just a flipped vote here or there away from winning this award. Ramirez actually had nearly identical numbers to Tatis across the board, but with a slightly higher .292 average. Ramirez received a single first place vote, two seconds and three thirds. He finished with 45 points, just four behind the winners. But wait, there was one more player who had a reasonable shot at being the MVP. Demigods first baseman Freddie Freeman didn’t receive any first place votes, but was another popular choice on ballots. He appeared on eight ballots for a total of 32 points. Those were the five who appeared on a majority of ballots. Kings outfielder Mookie Betts also received a first place nod as one of the three total votes given to him. To add to the chaos of these results is another fascinating fact. The champion Darkhorses easily led the league in batting points. However, not one of their players were among the eleven players who received MVP votes. Finally, this is the first time in Mike Trout’s illustrious career that he has not received a MVP vote.
Click here to view the full voting results.
And with that, official business for the 2020 DTBL season is complete. It’s been a trying year for everybody. I hope this league was a fun distraction for you at times this summer. Let’s all hope for a return to normalcy in 2021. Have a great Thanksgiving!