Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt has been named the National League’s Most Valuable Player, according to an announcement from the Baseball Writers Association of America. He was followed in the voting by Manny Machado of the Padres and his teammate Nolan Arenado.
Though he’s come close many times, this is the first MVP award for the veteran, who just turned 35 in September. Though he’s older than the typical prime years of most athletes, he had arguably the best campaign of his career in 2022. He hit 35 home runs and produced a .317/.404/.578 batting line. That production was an incredible 77% better than the league average hitter, as evidenced by his 177 wRC+. When combined with his solid defense at first base, he was considered to be worth 7.1 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs and 7.8 in the estimation of Baseball Reference.
Goldschmidt finished second among qualified NL batters in on-base percentage, trailing only Freddie Freeman. He led the league in slugging and tied for fifth in longballs. Along the way, he was named to his seventh All-Star game. Goldschmidt secured a fifth career Silver Slugger award and has appeared on MVP ballots each season going back to 2015. He’s under contract for two more years on the five-year extension he inked shortly after St. Louis acquired him from the Diamondbacks in a franchise-altering trade.
Machado secured a runner-up finish, the highest of his career to date. He’s now gotten into the top five in the voting on four separate occasions, including two of his four seasons in San Diego. He hit .298/.366/.531 with 32 homers and 37 doubles, appearing in 150 games. Machado finished 7th in the NL in on-base percentage and fourth in slugging. He earned his sixth career All-Star nod in the process.
Arenado picked up his 10th straight Gold Glove award this year with a typically excellent season at the hot corner. He also had arguably the best offensive year of his career, putting up a .293/.358/.533 line over 620 plate appearances. Only Goldschmidt and Mookie Betts topped him in slugging, while he finished ninth in on-base percentage. Arenado secured his seventh All-Star selection and fourth top-five MVP finish.
Goldschmidt picked up 22 of 30 first-place votes, while Machado secured seven votes. Arenado was the other player who got a first-place nod. Freeman finished in fourth overall and was penciled into six ballots in second place. Betts rounded out the top five, while Mets star Pete Alonso (who finished eighth) was the only other player to get a second-place vote. Austin Riley, J.T. Realmuto, Alonso, Francisco Lindor and Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara placed sixth through tenth, respectively.
Full voting breakdown available here.
Congrats! Well earned.
Awesome. The MVP is Paul Goldschmidt. Congratulations, well deserved.
yeah that was just states. If we needed a parrot we would go get one.
Finally Paul Goldschmidt gets the MVP hardware his humble self has long deserved. You could tell when his bat went cold in September into October then the playoffs he and Nolan Arenado carried the Cardinals this year and they needed both of them
cg to goldy now we can finally call him goldschmidt than silverschmidt
Deserved!!
Congrats! It always felt like he’d get one in his career.
Acuna should have won!
Please, with all your baseball acumen, tell all us baseball fools, why Acuna should have won…
the better question is, why not?
The even better question is: why are you a troll?
I’m not a troll. I’m just passionate about getting rid of him.
and Acuna is still with the Braves. Guess it makes the Braves idiots too.
Acuna for Rhys Hoskins
Ah sorry, you’re the idiot
Acuna + Ozuna’s entire contract for Rhys. Deal! Put him in left field.
anyone who isn’t on their own website ie a troll
Trade Acuna? I don’t know man, sounds kinda crazy
I think saying why not proves that you just don’t have a good answer
Wow, you got me. Of course there wasn’t a good answer because Acuna was useless in 2022.
No BoBo is the idiot
Yeah he’s such a useless player coming off a major injury
Why you so bitter? They won a world championship a year ago, boast one of the most talented crop of players with more on the way and have a player in Acuna who, at the top of his game, is one of the league’s best. I think I have to agree with other folks here. Troll
I mean you are not the first or last to say how great Acuna is for the team and yet, ironically, the Braves won a ring when he didn’t play.
Oh my god. The nationals won a ring without Bryce Harper. Your point?
Team game
Exactly. So Acuna is not as important to the team winning. If anything, he has been a hindrance. Trade him. They don’t need him.
I don’t know my man. Seek help
I mean you are getting so worked up defending Acuna like he is your cousin. We can all use help at some point.
Defending against delusion
“What is that a bar of soap?”
“Oh, I GOT YOU GOOD!”
“Bite it rook make him look like a dick”
oh give me the gd soap
(bites it and spits it out)
now it’s down to us and the state boys now we really need to hit the roads and grabs your still on radios
Admit it. You hate Acuna because of his dreads!
I mean at least admit this whole fad with wearing a bunch of chains on the field is stupid. They flop around like a limp penis and are a hazard. Doesn’t matter the color of the skin or race.
I can see trading him for comparable value, but trading him to trade him? Seems…. odd.
So white people have to love every player with dreads or simpletons like SalaryCap will try and label them racist.
We got xx miles of interstate and I’ll be damned if I have acuna and his goons snatching it up
I used to have dreads, almost hip length 10 years of hair, still have them in a box when I cut them off for a job in 2011. Why would I hate someone for having them? They are a spiritual experience for the grower and something I think many people could benefit from doing to their hair, especially ignorant Americans who say wild things to white people with dreadlocks, you gotta be brave growing up a white kids in STL with dreadlocks
Nah, more chains, blind these fools in chains
I wanna see so many chains not even an erection that could win the election could stand up straight
nah it’s just a coincidence that another blk MLB player put his style and flahsiness before the team and game. yeah that’s not totally normal or anything LOL XD
@TARS: What?!?? Who said anything about race?!?! Are you showing your true colors, Mr. TARS? I just brought up his dreads. =))
Updated Manny Machado MVP count:
……
…….
0
I guess he sucks then, right?
Your counting skills are most impressive.
Congrats on setting a PR for counting.
And Nolan Ryan never won a Cy Young? So what? Still great players at what they do?
I used to really dislike Manny Machado, He was the punk of baseball? He’s done alot of growing up over the past few years
Well deserved, a great choice for the award. Crazy to remember just a couple years ago his first two seasons on his big Cardinals contract he looked like he was on the verge of being a washed up albatross and now here we are.
Always love a good come back story in baseball.
Yeah he failed to hit 30 homeruns in the 2020 season. What a disappointment!
He was a 2.6 WAR player in 161 games in his first season as a Cardinal on the 5 year/$130M deal and he looked lost in the game at the time and then his come back season was the pandemic shortened season and a lot of guys have 50 or 60 game hot streaks and then cool off to end the year with mediocre numbers, or vice versa.
It’s a fair statement. It’s not all about power numbers. Lots of players can hit 40 home runs a season and not be worth their roster spot while other players might only hit 5 home runs a season and still produce 6 WAR through their average, their on base percentage, their fielding, etc.
Yeah I’m sure everyone thought a 3.4 fWAR season meant he was washed.
Except that extension didn’t kick in until his second year as a Cardinal.
I still say meh that he underperformed the first couple of seasons on the club.
@trillionare maybe hoody’s first few years weren’t his best like in az, but his d was a godsend especially after watching martinaze at first. as soon as goldy was over there at first it seemed like the whole teams defense got better. also it wasn’t like goldy had anyone around him that could hit so not hard just to pitch around him.
What kinda take is this? He never looked “washed” for a whole 162 games? He wasn’t good in the first half of the season in 2019, or 2021, but demolished the baseball in the second half? Are you someone who just looked at his ending stat line and thought ehhh he’s “washed” or how did you come to that conclusion? Anyone who watched his second half in those years knew he wasn’t done?
Not even the MVP of his own team. Goldschmidt was awful from late August on. Nolan did it all and for the entire season.
stop
You were impressed by Nolan’s .637 OPS in September, which was 100 points lower than Goldschmidt’s September OPS?
Using “x player was awful during y time period” is already a really bad take, but even worse, neither of them played very well during that timeframe (and Nolan CERTAINLY not play well enough to give him the bump to MVP):
Paul Goldschmidt’s last 109 ABs (starting in late August): .229/.325/.349 2HR 10RBI
Nolan Arenado’s last 109 ABs (same timeframe): .239/.308/.395 3HR 18RBI
i’ll say this about both of them imo either one could of won it and been happy, goldy had better off numbers and solid d, nolan had just as good off as goldy just bit under but some of them plays he made at 3rd stole just as many runs. tbh with out either cards don’t win the nlc
He had a bad September and October after an amazing play diving onto the tarp, he couldn’t hit the baseball right down the middle… you could throw him 3 straight fastballs right down the middle and he’d strikeout? I suspect he was playing through lingering nerve pain in his back? Anyone who’s ever had nerve pain understands how it can limit you from doing something you normally do just fine?
Well deserved win.
Ye approves
I was pretty certain Goldy would win because of his offense, but you could make the case certainly that Arenado was the better overall player on the Cardinals.
But also congrats to Goldy!
Paul Goldschmidt is a very good defensive 1B.
He sure is
No surprise here. Cubs fan who hates the Cards, but have to admit he had one hell of a season.
Gratz PG! Solid character guy baseball loves him!
Congratulations to Goldy! He also triggered a 2 million dollar bonus for winning MVP. Goldy is eating steak tonight!
I remember when 28 years old or so used to represent the “prime” of MLB players. Boy does Goldschmidt and Verlander prove that theory wrong.
It’s not a theory. Most players peak 28-32. It’s a historical average so there are differences. Great players are excellent throughout most of their career. Justin Verlander is an anomaly as was Early Wynn, Phil Niekro and Nolan Ryan to name a few.
Peak for almost a century has occurred on average during players’ age 26-27 seasons. Fielding peaks around 22-23.
Great players routinely peak early, as well. Their peaks are just so high that they’re able to stay in the majors throughout their declines as useful players (or as with the likes of Pujols and Cabrera, are able to play despite actively hurting their teams b/c of massive contracts).
“A typical player peaks around age 26 and gradually declines afterward in what we know as the age curve.”
blogs.fangraphs.com/checking-in-on-the-aging-curve…
They used a 10 year period from 2011 to 2020. They only included hitting stats. They also do not include any season or the season prior where a player had less than 150 PA per season in any two year period.
Their wording is “at least 150 plate appearances in both the “age” and “age-1” seasons”
That weeds out one heck of a large number of seasons.
Using 1946 to the present and utilizing data from all seasons, the peak of performance overall, offense and defense combined, comes in the age 28 season for position players and begins a marked decline after the age 30 season.
For position players there is a 3 year “plateau” period where the decline is negligible on offense and less than 2% on defense. After their age 30 season the decline averages 7% per season in most offensive stats. Defense falls off even faster after that. What is the old saying. “the legs are the first to go”?
For pitcher the peak comes in the age 31 season and begins to show a marked decline after the age 32 season. For pitchers that plateau period is shorter. Just 2 seasons.
The average age that players enter the majors is 23.6 over the last 40 seasons, so even trying to show a defensive peak at 22-23 is not realistic.
Pujols only arguably hurt his team in 2017. He was otherwise still a useful player his entire career.
It’s just that WAR unfairly punishes DHs on defense they don’t actually play while also overrating defensive value in the first place. Any AAA callup the Angels could’ve made during those years to replace Pujols at DH would’ve racked up a lot more negative WAR than he did, especially when they released him despite having a huge hole in RF (and eventually the rest of their OF) where their 1B could’ve easily played full time.
It’s not a theory, and x deviations from that fact don’t disprove it.
“The average temperature in August is 78F, omigod it’s 102F outside, that can’t possibly be true!”
Don’t they teach rudimentary statistics in public schools?
My NL MVP was very close between Paul Goldschmidt and Freddie Freeman. I gave it to Freeman but I don’t have any issues with the voters going with Goldschmidt.
Chalk one up for the good guy.
As a Diamondbacks fan I’m proud , very proud , of him. No way they weren’t giving him this one.
Glad to see him recognized. Well deserved.
Such a great surprise! He’s incredible!
When do they announce Judge??
Reinhold?
Billy from Beverly Hills Cop yes…
The difference was protection in the lineup. Machado had hosmer hot for a little bit but had weak protection otherwise. Then there was the rolled ankle thing…
Machado should be chewing out Ringworm Jr. right about now.
@CrikesAlready People keep getting this wrong. The effects of protection are wildly overstated, typically only increasing a player’s walks, and in Machado’s case he’s largely immune to fluctuations in his walk rate regardless of who hits behind him.
Which usually wasn’t Tatis, who typically hit in front of Machado. You could look it up!
baseball-reference.com/teams/SDP/2021-batting-orde…
How to say you never played baseball ^^^
Crikes, “Machado should be chewing out Ringworm Jr. right about now” HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
I would have taken Arenado over Goldschmidt. They both hit well, but Arenado is a superstar fielder.
Be aware, Goldschmidt did “save” Arenado plenty of times by being able to pick errant throws to first.
Two things, though–Goldschmidt isn’t wildly better than a poor def 1Bman like Alonso at scooping, and second, Arenado makes ‘errant’ throws because going 10′ into foul ground, spinning, and making any throw at all across 135′ to 1B usually doesn’t result in a pinpoint laser.
It’s a bit like criticizing Ozzie Smith for a high error rate when half of those errors resulted from Smith being able to put a glove on balls other SS’s would have to wave to.
Goldschmidt’s a strong defensive 1Bman, but Arenado’s a much better defensive player: better at the more difficult position, and better among 3Bmen than Goldy is among 1Bmen.
Goldschmidt is lightyears ahead of Alonso defensively.
So? Goldschmidt is *also* a superstar fielder. He just wasn’t quite good enough to win the Gold Glove this year.
Yes, 3B is more difficult to play, but Goldy isn’t that much less of a great fielder than Arenado compared to the others at their respective positions. Neither of those slight advantages make up for the offensive difference between them as far as I’m concerned.
One of the best players in the game and yet still underrated.
Congratulations to Goldschmidt! He’s from the Houston area, so proud to see a local guy do well.
I say Shohei gets 4 or 5 votes and the rest to 99.
Manny was robbed
Ken Kendrick should be ashamed.
Congratulations Goldy. You had one hell of a year and you deserve this award. Every young player could learn from the way you handle your approach to the game. Your respect to your current teammates and your unpretentious attitude is so refreshing. Well deserved.
While goldy had a great season, he had a ton of protection all year long, Manny had nothing until the deadline, and even then, Soto and bell weren’t as good as they should have been. Manny was much more valuable, but yeah not complaining that goldy won, cause he did have a statistically great season
tbh you can make a case for goldy, nolan, manny, freedie and harper all had outstanding seasons and without them (cept freedie his team is pretty stacked) most likely miss the playoffs. i do agree with what your about manny
@damascusj Manny hit behind Soto in 2022, fwiw.
It’d be interesting to see a detailed look at the effects of protection on Machado, given how similar his walk rates are, year to year. He had a great August, following Bell and Soto’s arrival, but that was followed by a weak September, by his standard. And April was his best month, while his third best month was June.
It’s hard to see a connection b/t performance to Bell hitting behind him, or Soto in front. As for Manny’s BB rate, he’s more consistent in this regard, year to year, than most.
In June, 56% of the pitches Machado saw were strikes. For most of his at bats that month Cronenworth hit in front of him and Voit or Hosmer hit after him.
In July, just 42% of the pitches Machado saw were strikes. For most of his at bats that month Cronenworth hit in front of him and Voit or Mazara hit after him.
In August 69% of the pitches Machado saw were strikes. For the most part Soto hit in front of him and Bell after him.
I will let you look up his hitting stats for each month. There was a wee bit of a difference.
Sell high.
Realmuto comes in a fraction of a win under the 1st- through 3rd-place finishers and only finishes 7th? Yikes–what does a catcher have to do these days?
44 awards this century, and catchers have only won 2. Could be a lull in catcher quality, but it feels more like we still undervalue catching, even in an era that recognizes framing, and that WAR may not be the best measure of catcher value compared with other positions.
@jack the problem is how do you quantify what makes a c great, i.e. managing staff or the game, slowing the game down, ect. so what we have to go off of are off. stats and flawed d stats. i do agree good c are hard to find and are key to any winning team but every wants a 30/30 c
@brodie-bruce Well said. Fwiw the longest view on WAR highlights it’s simply, physically impossible to compile WAR the way other position players do.
Using rWAR b/c it’s close enough for this purpose and b/c it’s neatly organized at BB-Ref, only two catchers have cleared 70 rWAR, compared with eleven 1Bmen to date, w/ Bench at 75 rWAR, while Gehrig clocked in at 114 rWAR.
If that’s the case, should catchers for the sake of voting for an award like the MVP get an informal bonus b/c of how demanding the position is? 10%, at the least, sounds reasonable, which puts Realmuto above everyone except Arenado and Goldschmidt. Make it 20% and he’s in a 3-way tie with those two, and he was more instrumental in getting his team to the postseason.
Seems inarguable we’re punishing catchers in the MVP voting and probably elsewhere if we use WAR as a significant statistic and guide. HOF voters may not have been making adequate adjustments either, given the under representation of catchers in the Hall.
i definitely can’t argue against realmuto for 2 reasons, i didn’t really watch him play much this year but secondly i know his game calling and d is the reason philly got where they got. they had one of the better staves this year, yes pitchers get a lot of the credit but at the same time if the c isn’t doing his homework and calls a bad game pitchers suffer too. then again i’ve been spoiled watching great catching for 20 years
Yadi? Yeah, I’d absolutely cast my non-existent vote to put him in Cooperstown.
55 fWAR v 44 rWAR suggests BB-Ref may not be current with catcher defense. He may not have the peak, either, but 9 GG, 10 ASG, and 6th all-time in games played behind the plate is part of a tremendous career-based case.
Fangraphs attempts to incorporate framing in their WAR calculations, while B-R does not, hence the difference between fWAR and rWAR. It’s valuable when comparing catchers today against each other, but historically it creates problems. A catcher today with 50+ fWAR incorporating framing very well could be not as good as a catcher from 40 years back with 40 fWAR that doesn’t incorporate framing.
Well deserved win. Love what Manny did for the Padres. Goldy was just a bit better.
@pads fan i’m a little shocked manny didn’t after watching nolan and goldy play all year i thought they would steal each other’s votes giving the rest of the field a shot.
Cool little 7th for JT. Well-deserved.
Garbage pick. I would expect a true MVP to show up in September and not fade down the stretch when it matters.