Fixing the All-Time MVP List

WHO CLAIMS THE MOST MVP TROPHIES?

One of baseball’s long-standing “unwritten rules” — thankfully obsolete — was an unofficial lifetime cap on the number of MVP awards a player could earn. From 1938 (the year Jimmie Foxx became the first three-time winner) through 2001, the standard was “Three MVPs, You’re Done.” Granted, it was an extraordinary standard, reached by only 10 men: Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Albert Pujols. [1] But it was also an arbitrary standard, one that masked the true greatness of some of the best players in the game’s history.

The “rule” was dropped, of course, when Barry Bonds forced the Fourth Estate to grant him a fourth MVP in 2001, when he set single-season marks for HR, walks, and slugging percentage. Bonds, as you know, went on to claim seven awards in total — and he deserved at least eight. Which leads one to consider the MVPs that were never granted (or granted to the wrong players): What if today’s MVP award, established in 1931, existed since the early days of Major League Baseball? What if the writers didn’t impose their silly “Three Awards and You’re Out” rule? What if we could revise the all-time MVP honor role?

Who breaks the “MVP Ceiling” and claims more than three trophies — and who tops of the list for most career awards? (*=actual awards won)

EIGHT AWARDS

Babe Ruth: 1916, 1919–21, 1923*–24, 1926, 1928
Despite being the game’s greatest player, Ruth claimed but one MVP award (1923). Eligibility rules at the time prohibited a player from claiming more than one award during his career (and the AL award itself wasn’t introduced until 1922). If not for a six-week suspension in 1922 for violating the Commissioner’s rules on barnstorming, and the famous “bellyache” that cost him two months of the 1925 season (and left him a shell of himself when he returned), Ruth is the MVP every year from 1919–1926. He’s the only player who plausibly claims an MVP as a pitcher (1916, when he posted a league-leading 1.75 ERA over 323 IP) and an everyday player. Eight is really the minimum number of awards Ruth would have won — you can also grant him trophies in 1927, 1929–1931 and not be wrong.

Barry Bonds: 1990,* 1991, 1992–1993,* 2001–2004*
And he has a case in 2000, when he out-hit MVP teammate Jeff Kent (though Kent was a fine choice for honors). Much is made of Bonds ceding the 1991 award to Terry Pendleton, but it’s not one of the great robberies of all-time. Pendleton was plenty good for that worst-to-first Braves squad: .319/.367/.517/6.1 WAR with excellent defense at third base. Bonds was better, of course. Better than everybody (as he was, more often than not, for the entirety of his career).

SIX AWARDS

Mickey Mantle: 1955, 1956–57,* 1958, 1961, 1962*
Maris set the record, but Mantle was the vastly superior player in 1961 (WAR tells the story: 10.5 for Mantle, 6.9 for Maris). He was also the league’s best in 1955, when the writers gave the MVP nod to his iconic teammate Yogi Berra, and again in 1958, when the voters bestowed an inexplicable MVP on Jackie Jensen (.286/.396/.535/4.9 WAR). The 1958 ballot seems based on nothing but an aversion to giving the award to Mantle (.304/.443/.592/8.7 WAR) a third straight year — he finished a curious fifth on the ballot. Given his dominance (and the Yankees prominence), Mantle might be the most snubbed player in MVP voting history (though another name on the list has a case below).

FIVE AWARDS

Willie Mays: 1954,* 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965*
Yes, Mays was the best player in his league just about every year from 1954–1966; but you’re not a victim of outright theft when the MVP goes to guys like Koufax, Robinson, Aaron, and Banks. That said, you are a victim when you see the likes of Maury Wills (1962) and Ken Boyer (1964) claim an award that should rightfully be yours. The fleet-footed Wills (.299/.347/.373/104 SB/6.0 WAR) could’ve stolen 200 bases that year and not been as valuable as Mays (.304/.384/.615/10.5 WAR).

Alex Rodriguez: 1996, 2002, 2003,* 2005,* 2007*
Issues. I know. But we work with what we have, and what we have is the numbers. And the numbers say A-Rod was the best player of his generation, a three-time MVP who should claim at least five awards. Juan Gonzalez (.314/.368/.643/3.8 WAR) receiving the honor over A-Rod (.358/.414/631/9.4 WAR) in 1996 might be the worst vote of the last 25 years (though it’s not without serious competition).

Ted Williams: 1941–42, 1946,* 1947, 1949*
Oy. Where to start with the Splinter? Williams was twice snubbed for MVP honors despite hitting for the Triple Crown (1942, 1947). The 1947 vote (which saw Joe DiMaggio claim honors by one vote when a single writer failed to list Williams on his ballot) stands among the very worst ever. There has rarely been so vast a gulf in performance between two players at the top of the MVP ballot: In 1947, Williams hit .343/.499/.634/205 OPS+/9.9 WAR to DiMaggio’s .315/.391/.522/155 OPS+/4.9 WAR. Oh, there was also that time Williams hit .406/.553/.735 (with a league-high 37 HR) and failed to garner MVP honors (though it should be noted Joe D. had himself a nice little hot streak in the summer of ‘41). Teddy Ballgame has a co-stake, along with Mantle, to the claim of “Most Snubbed Player of All-Time.”

Ty Cobb: 1907, 1909–1910, 1911,* 1915
The impossible Cobb: The Georgia Peach in 1909 (.376/9 HR/107 RBI/77 SB/9.9 WAR) became the only player in the game’s history to hit for a “Quadruple Crown,” leading the league in BA/HR/RBI/SB. Remarkably, this might be his third or fourth best season.

Honus Wagner: 1901–02, 1907-1909
The best hitter, the best base runner, the best defender in his league. One can make a reasonable case for Wagner as MVP every year of MLB’s first decade (1901 being the only year he doesn’t lead position players in WAR — he ties for second). Single-season awards understate Wagner’s dominance; he towered over the NL from 1900–1909, leading the decade in BA, OBP, SLG, OPS+, R, H, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, SB and, obviously, WAR (85.8, more than doubling the runner-up in that category). All this while playing the best shortstop anybody had ever seen.

FOUR AWARDS

Rogers Hornsby: 1921–22, 1925,* 1929*
Not considered for this list is Hornsby’s 1924 campaign: .424/.507/.696/12.1 WAR. Despite vocal protest from St. Louis owner Sam Breadon (“What does a man have to DO to win this @!*&%$!! award?”), Hornsby wasn’t robbed: Brooklyn’s Dazzy Vance (10.1 WAR) took MVP honors with a season for the ages, leading his league in wins, ERA, ERA+, WHIP, FIP, K/9, K/BB, CG and strikeouts. Vance’s 262K in 1924 are nearly twice as many as the runner-up in that category.

Lou Gehrig: 1927,* 1930, 1934, 1936*
Gehrig in 1934 joins the short list of players who hit for the Triple Crown but failed to claim MVP honors. Ted Williams, at least, garnered runner-up status with his two Triple Crown snubs. Gehrig rated only a fifth-place finish in 1934 (with the prize going to Detroit’s Mickey Cochrane). Look, home runs aren’t everything… but in 1934 Gehrig hit 49 of them. Cochrane hit two (and for the more sabermetrically inclined, Gehrig’s 10.4 WAR more than doubles Cochrane’s 4.5).

Stan Musial: 1943*–44, 1946,* 1948*
NL voters in 1944 somehow deemed teammate Marty Marion (.267/.324/.362/90 OPS+/4.7 WAR) more valuable than Musial (.347/.440/.549/174 OPS+/8.8 WAR). We’re righting that wrong here. Despite being a lousy hitter, Marion — known as “The Octopus” for his glove-work at shortstop — provided legitimate value to the pennant-winning Cardinals team. But Musial was clearly the best player in the league. And the best player in the league, playing for the best team in the league, deserves his fourth MVP.

ODDS AND ENDS: Joe DiMaggio takes a hit on our revisionist list, losing two of his three MVPs (1941 and 1947 both go to Ted Williams). Yogi Berra goes from a three-time winner to a two-time champion thanks to teammate Mickey Mantle poaching his 1955 trophy.

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[1] Mike Trout, of course, joined this illustrious list in 2019.

Jeremy Lehrman is the author of Baseball’s Most Baffling MVP Ballots. For more baseball, click here.