The brilliance that Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani and Atlanta Braves’ Ronald Acuna Jr. showed in the 2023 MLB campaign has been recognized in an unprecedented way. Both players won the MVP honors in their respective leagues by unanimous vote, something that never happened in the history of the award.
Ohtani captured his second AL MVP award and became the first MVP winner in the history of MBL to do it unanimously twice. Texas Rangers’ duo Corey Seager and Marcus Semien finished second and third in the voting, respectively.
Ohtani, who is a free agent this offseason, batted .304 with an AL-leading 44 home runs and 20 stolen bases in 135 games. The two-way phenom also made 23 starts as a pitcher, posting a 10-5 record with a 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts.
Acuna Jr., on the other hand, had a historic season that saw him hit 41 homers and get 73 stolen bases. This made him the only player in league history to have more than 40 home runs and 46 stolen bases in a single season. He also had a batting average of .337, which was second-best in the entire MLB behind Miami Marlins’ Luis Arraez.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Bets finished second in NL MVP voting, receiving all 30 second-place votes, while his teammate Freddie Freeman finished third.
