Congratulations go to him, for an excellent season
Ketel Marte finished third in the National League MVP voting, which was announced this afternoon. To nobody’s surprise, he came in behind the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, and also ended up after the Mets’ Francisco Lindor. I think the deciding factor for the latter was probably New York making the post-season, while Arizona did not. While it’s not the sole factor, you can certainly make the case that Lindor was key to his team making the playoffs, while you can’t make that claim about Marte. Hard to blame Ketel for that, or for the month he was almost out of action, after the Phillies’ Garrett Stubbs kneecapped him with an ugly slide at second base on August 10. What might have been…
This beats Corbin Carroll’s fifth-place finish for 2023 and represents the second time Marte has finished in the top five for the award. He came fourth in the 2019 voting, with a season which was very similar in value: 6.9 bWAR as opposed to 6.8 bWAR. But it’s interesting to note how the offensive environment has changed since then: Marte hit .329, thirty-seven points higher than he did this year, and had an OPS almost fifty points better. But by the time all the adjustments are taken into account, Ketel’s OPS+ was actually fractionally better this year: 155 vs. 154. He was also the winner of the Silver Slugger at second-base this year, which was not the case in 2019, though he was an All-Star both seasons.
It’s also the best result by any Diamondback for even longer, since Paul Goldschmidt also finished third in the 2017 NL MVP campaign. The last time anyone finished higher was also Goldy, who came runner-up after the 2015 season. But Arizona remains without an MVP player to their name: the Mets and our expansion siblings in Tampa are the only other teams for whom that’s the case. Though for some teams it has been a hot minute. Cleveland’s MVP drought has been almost as long as their World Series one. The last player there to win was Al Rosen for the 1953 Indians, more than seventy years ago! The Orioles, Royals, Padres and Rockies have also not had an MVP since the D-backs entered the league.
Below are the full results for this year’s voting in the National League: a little disappointing, though perhaps not surprising, to see no down-ballot love for any other D-backs. As for the “other” league, Aaron Judge took advantage of the departure of Ohtani, and became the winner of the MVP for the second time, following up on his 2022 victory, this time unanimously.
