MIAMI – El cañonero de los Marlins, Giancarlo Stanton, fue reconocido el jueves con el trofeo de Jugador Más Valioso de la Liga Nacional por parte de la Asociación de Cronistas de Béisbol de Norteamérica (BBWAA, por sus siglas en inglés).
Cuatro veces convocado al Juego de Estrellas, Stanton es el primer pelotero en la historia de los Marlins en ganar este reconocimiento. En la votación, Stanton finalizó por encima de Paul Goldschmidt de Arizona y Joey Votto de Cincinnati.
Stanton lideró las Grandes Ligas con 59 vuelacercas, convirtiéndose en el octavo pelotero en la historia en conectar al menos esa cifra en una temporada. Sus 132 carreras empujadas y promedio de slugging de .631 también encabezaron la Gran Carpa.
mlb.com
MIAMI — Giancarlo Stanton elevated his game in 2017, and now he stands alone atop the National League.
Stanton won the NL Most Valuable Player Award as voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) on Thursday night. The four-time All-Star right fielder is the first player in Marlins history to claim the NL’s highest honor.
• Previous NL MVP Award winners
In the final tallies, Stanton finished ahead of Cincinnati’s Joey Votto and Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt.
Soft-spoken by nature, Stanton let his production do the talking. It rang loudly as he accomplished a home run number the league hasn’t seen since Barry Bonds was dominating the sport.
Stanton paced the Majors with 59 home runs, becoming the eighth player in history to hit at least that many in a season. It’s a total that hadn’t been reached since Bonds set the MLB record with 73 in 2001. Sammy Sosa finished with 64 in the same year.
The lofty home run figure was just part of Stanton’s all-around season. His 132 RBIs and .631 slugging percentage also topped the Majors.
Being named MVP is the latest in a string of offseason awards for Stanton, who turned 28 last week. At the World Series, the native of Sherman Oaks, Calif., was named the Hank Aaron Award winner in the NL. A week ago, he received the NL Silver Slugger Award, and he also won the NL Players Choice Award for Outstanding Player.
Stanton also was an NL Gold Glove Award finalist.
Ability has never been in question for Stanton. Since breaking in at age 20 in 2010, his career has always been about staying healthy.
In 2014, Stanton led the NL in home runs with 37, and he finished second in the MVP race to Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. Even that year, Stanton missed the final three weeks due to being struck in the face by a pitch.
After three straight injury-plagued seasons, Stanton showed what he can do when he stays on the field. He appeared in a career-high 159 games and turned in one of the top home run performances in MLB history.
His home run total was 20 more than the next challenger in the NL. Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers finished with 39. Stanton’s slash line was .281/.376/.631, and he scored 123 runs.
Before Stanton’s record-setting campaign, the Marlins’ record for home runs in a season was 42 by Gary Sheffield in 1996, and the RBI mark was 121, set by Preston Wilson in 2000.
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