Minnesota Twins Joe Mauer Wins American League Most Valuable Player Award

MVP

Joe Mauer catcher of the Minnesota Twins has been named the American League Most Valuable Player in a near unanimous vote,receiving 27 of the 28 first-place votes to easily beat out the Yankees’ duo of Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter, conducted by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Mauer also joined an elite group of players when he won his third American League batting title this season.

The 26-year-old Mauer finished with 327 points, well ahead of Teixeira, who had 225, and Jeter, who had 193. Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera, who received the only other first-place vote, was fourth with 171 points.

Mauer became the fifth player in Twins history to win the MVP Award. He joined teammate Justin Morneau, who took home the honor in 2006, as well as Zoilo Versalles (1965) Harmon Killebrew (1969) and Rod Carew (1977).

He also became just the second catcher in the past 33 years to be named MVP. Texas Rangers Ivan Rodriguez (1999) is the only backstop besides Mauer to take home the honor since Yankees catcher Thurman Munson won it in 1976. The last catcher to win National League MVP honors was Cincinnati’s Johnny Bench in 1972.

Mauer put together the best season of his already impressive young career in 2009. He batted .365 to earn his second straight AL batting title. It was his third batting title in four seasons, making the 26-year-old the only catcher in Major League history to accomplish the feat. He is the 10th player in AL history with three or more batting titles.

In addition to leading the league in batting average, Mauer also was the leader in on-base percentage (.444) and slugging percentage (.587), giving him what some stat gurus have deemed the modern Triple Crown. The last AL player to lead in all three of those categories was George Brett of the Royals in 1980. Mauer set career highs in home runs (28) and RBIs (96). And it was that unexpected power surge that was the biggest change for Mauer in 2009, as he more than doubled his previous high in homers (13 in 2006).

This award season had already been kind to Mauer. He was named the AL’s Outstanding Player in the Player’s Choice Awards as well as being named the top player in the AL by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. He also earned his third Silver Slugger Award and his second straight Gold Glove.

Check back to read about Albert Pujols’ NL MVP award, which will be announced Tuesday.