{"id":944142,"date":"2026-10-28T16:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T16:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944142\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T16:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T16:34:13","slug":"mlb-players-choice-awards-2026-results-winners-and-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944142\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Players Choice Awards 2026 Results, Winners and Reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

In what could foreshadow the outcome of the MVP race, the Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez and Chicago Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong were named by their peers<\/a> as the Outstanding Players in their respective leagues.<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong was the overall Player of the Year in the MLB Players Association’s annual Players Choice Awards.<\/p>\n

Here’s the full list of winners:<\/p>\n

For a big chunk of the 2026 season, there was passionate debate about whether Crow-Armstrong or Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani was the better MVP candidate in the National League.<\/p>\n

There may not be much doubt anymore after injuries<\/a> impacted Ohtani’s performance in the second half.<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong combined elite defense in center field with an MLB-best 45 home runs and an NL-high .570 slugging percentage.<\/p>\n

It was a somewhat similar situation in the AL.<\/p>\n

Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is first among position players in WAR (7.0) at FanGraphs<\/a>. Alvarez follows closely behind with 6.8 WAR. And in the case of Witt, a lot of his MVP candidacy came down to his defense and baserunning. He hit a career-low 18 homers and slugged .441.<\/p>\n

Alvarez led MLB in batting average (.316), on-base percentage (.432) and slugging (.601). He was also second in the AL behind Pete Alonso in home runs (42) and RBI (106).<\/p>\n

Those impressive numbers could see the Astros slugger at the top of the MVP ballot.<\/p>\n

Among the major races, Rookie of the Year for the NL might be the only one with some uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati Reds first baseman Sal Stewart had 32 home runs and 111 RBI but slugged .457 and had a 117 OPS+. His 2.0 WAR on FanGraphs<\/a> speaks for itself. Stewart wasn’t a good defender and his home run total obscures his offensive value.<\/p>\n

The MLBPA awards point to the outcome a lot of fans are at least expecting. <\/p>\n

New York Mets rookies Nolan McLean (3.5) and Carson Benge (4.3) both eclipsed Stewart in WAR<\/a>. That may not matter much. Players around MLB clearly weren’t swayed.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Zack Wheeler was miffed<\/a> to get overlooked for an All-Star nod when this year’s game was in his home ballpark. Now, he at least has some hardware to show for his efforts in 2026.<\/p>\n

Having recovered from thoracic outlet decompression surgery, the right-hander went 14-5 with a 3.00 ERA and 3.35 FIP. He averaged 10-plus strikeouts per nine innings for the third straight season.<\/p>\n

Wheeler made an impressive comeback from his medical ordeal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In what could foreshadow the outcome of the MVP race, the Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez and Chicago Cubs’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-944142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}