Not that Alvarez stood much of a chance, anyway, in the AL MVP race against the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, who hit an AL-record 62 home runs, and Angels two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani. Judge received 28 of 30 first-place votes to win his first MVP Award with 410 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America revealed Thursday. Ohtani, the 2021 AL MVP, received two first-places and 28 second-place votes to finish in second place with 280 points.
Alvarez, who was named to his first All-Star team and won a Silver Slugger at designated hitter this year, received 22 third-place votes and finished in third place with 232 points, ahead of José Ramírez of the Guardians (186 points) and teammate Jose Altuve (142 points). It was Altuve’s third top-five MVP finish. He won it in 2017 and placed third in ’16.
It was a career-best season for Alvarez, who batted .306 with 37 homers and 97 RBIs, an OPS+ of 187 and a 1.019 OPS in 135 games, ranking second behind Judge in OPS in the AL. He also ranked second in the AL in hard-hit percentage (59.8 percent), second in on-base percentage (.406), second in slugging percentage (.613), third in homers, fourth in batting average, runs (95) and walks (78) and tied for fifth in RBIs.
He was named the AL Player of the Month for June when he led the AL in batting average (.418), on-base percentage (.510), slugging (.835) and OPS (1.346). His 6.8 bWAR for 2022 ranked fourth in the AL behind Judge, Ohtani and Andrés Giménez of the Guardians.
What’s more, Alvarez wasn’t limited to DH. He made a career-high 56 starts in left field and had seven outfield assists, which tied for second among AL left fielders. The Astros were 25-6 in games in which Alvarez homered.
Led by Alvarez and Altuve, six Astros received AL MVP votes, including AL Cy Young winner Justin Verlander, who finished in 10th place with 44 points. Right-fielder Kyle Tucker had eight points, third baseman Alex Bregman had one seventh-place vote, which garnered him four points, and lefty Framber Valdez received one ninth-place vote, giving him two points.