Astros: Alex Bregman finishes second to Mike Trout in MVP voting

Astros third baseman Alex Bregman finished second to Mike Trout in the MVP voting.

Astros fans who hoped to see their team take home the awards trifecta — Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP — were disappointed on Thursday. Alex Bregman finished in second place in the American League Most Valuable Player results, with Angels star Mike Trout taking home the award.

Trout received 17 of 30 first-place votes and 13 second-place votes for 355 total points. Bregman received the other 13 first-place votes and 17 second-place votes for 335 points, meaning these two were listed first and second on every ballot. Oakland’s Marcus Semien finished in third place. These three were the only players named on every ballot.

Three other Astros players received votes. George Springer finished in seventh place, receiving 69 total points including one fourth-place vote. Gerrit Cole finished in 10th place with 61 points, including two fourth-place votes, and Justin Verlander finished in 11th place with 56 points, including one third-place vote.

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This is Bregman’s highest finish in the MVP voting and his second-straight season in the top five. This is also Springer’s highest finish after coming in 13th in 2017. What’s more, this is also Cole’s highest career finish in the voting. He came in 19th place in the NL voting in 2015.

Verlander is no stranger to these ballots. This marks the seventh time he’s received MVP votes and his fourth time finishing in the top 11. He won the MVP award in 2011.

For Trout, this marks his third MVP award and his eighth consecutive season finishing in the top four. Still just 28 years of age, he could challenge Barry Bonds‘ record of seven career MVP awards.

Hard to Argue

Some Astros fans won’t be happy with these results, but it’s tough to argue. The only reason the vote was so close was because Trout missed the last part of the season with an injury. If he hadn’t gotten hurt, he may have won in a landslide.

Still, that doesn’t diminish the incredible season Bregman put up. He was the best hitter in an incredibly deep lineup, setting career highs in home runs, RBIs, walks, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS and total bases.

He’s also still just 25 years old, so there may well be more of these Bregman-Trout races to be had in the future. This one just narrowly went Trout’s way.