MLB Roundup 11/17: Jose Altuve and Giancarlo Stanton are your 2017 MVPs

Jose Altuve and Giancarlo Stanton win the MVP awards

Award week in baseball wrapped up Thursday night with the MVP awards being handed out. The NL was announced first, and that ended up being an incredibly contested race with Giancarlo Stanton just barely edging out Joey Votto. The Marlins slugger got 302 points to Votto’s 300. It was a fascinating race on that side with as many as six players have some sort of an argument for the award, and in the end it came down to two players on non-contending teams. I probably would have voted for Votto, but he and Stanton were extremely close and it’s hard to be upset either way. Stanton, of course, is the focus of trade rumors with the Red Sox heavily involved in said rumors. I doubt this makes much of a difference, but winning the MVP certainly won’t hurt Stanton’s trade value.

Meanwhile, it was expected to be another close race in the American League between Jose Altuve and Aaron Judge. They did finish one-two, but Altuve received 27 first-place votes to Judge’s two. This time I agreed with the voters’ choice, but again it could have gone either way and it would have been tough to be too upset. The Red Sox, meanwhile, had two players receive down-ballot votes. Mookie Betts finished sixth in the voting while Chris Sale finished ninth. Betts’ finish is a testament to how great of an all-around player he is, because he really wasn’t close to MVP-caliber at the plate. However, he was a bit above-average there and elite with the glove and on the bases. Sale just finished second in the Cy Young, and frankly I’m a little surprised he wasn’t the top Red Sox finisher in this voting.

• Not much else happened on Thursday, but we did learn that the Yankees have expressed interest in Texas’ Jurickson Profar. He, of course, was once the consensus number one prospect in baseball but has had his career derailed by injuries. This is a bit surprising considering the Yankees are loaded with infield talent, but Profar could actually make some sense for the Red Sox. The upside is undeniable, he can play second base while Dustin Pedroia is out, and is able to play all around the field when everyone is healthy. Of course, there are a lot of teams that will be interested in buying low on the former top prospect.