Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman wins 2020 National League Most Valuable Player award. He won his first MVP Award after finishing within the top 10 in balloting four previous times. He received 28 of the 30 first-place votes cast by select members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The Dodgers’ Mookie Betts and the Padres’ Manny Machado were the other finalists for the award.
Freeman joins Jones, Terry Pendleton (1991) and Dale Murphy (1982 and ’83) as Braves players to win the NL MVP Award since the team moved to Atlanta in 1966. Hank Aaron (1957) and Bob Elliott (1947) are the franchise’s other winners.
Freeman led the Majors with 51 runs scored and ranked second in the NL in batting average (.341), on-base percentage (.462), slugging percentage (.640), OPS (1.102) and wRC+ (187). The only player who finished ahead of him in each of those five categories was the Nationals’ Juan Soto, who logged just 196 plate appearances, 66 fewer than Freeman.
The 31-year-old first baseman became the first Braves player to win an MVP Award since Jones in 1999.
“I don’t think anybody can ever dream of winning an MVP,” Freeman said. “As a kid, you’re just dreaming of one day being on TV, like the guys you’re watching. For it to come like this, it’s just amazing. I’ve had good years in the past. This year, it just all came together from start to finish.”
Freddie’s mother died of melanoma when he was just 10 years old. Freeman had another emotional loss in March, when his grandmother died.
“It was a tough year for the Freeman family, how it started off with losing my grandmother,” Freeman said. “But I’ve got a couple angels up there. I think they really helped me get through this season and helped me win this award.”
Freeman credits his teammates who produced around him in the lineup Ozuna, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Travis d’Arnaud for his success.
“[Ozuna] is the reason I’m here,” Freeman said. “He was behind me, and Ronald was in front of me. I had damage around me. Having a right-left-right arrangement, with the three-batter rule, it’s really hard to bring in a lefty, especially with d’Arnaud hitting fourth and the way he swung it this year. I just had more opportunities to do damage. That’s because of Ronald, Marcell and Travis.”
2020 National League MVP Final Voting Results:
Freddie Freeman (ATL): 28 (1st-place), 2 (2nd) – 410 points
Mookie Betts (LAD): 2 (1st), 21 (2nd), 5 (3rd), 1 (5th), 1 (6th) – 268 points
Manny Machado (SD): 2 (2nd), 16 (3rd), 7 (4th), 2 (5th), 2 (6th), 1 (7th) – 221 points
Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD): 2 (2nd), 5 (3rd), 14 (4th), 5 (5th), 2 (6th), 1 (7th), 1 (10th) – 201 points
Juan Soto (WSH): 3 (2nd), 2 (3rd), 5 (4th), 10 (5th), 4 (6th), 2 (7th), 2 (8th) – 172 points
Marcell Ozuna (ATL): 2 (3rd), 1 (4th), 11 (5th), 14 (6th), 2 (7th) – 167 points
Trea Turner (WSH): 2 (4th), 1 (6th), 6 (7th), 8 (8th), 6 (9th), 4 (10th) – 83 points
Mike Yastrzemski (SF): 1 (4th), 3 (6th), 8 (7th), 6 (8th), 3 (9th), 3 (10th) – 81 points
Corey Seager (LAD): 3 (6th), 2 (7th), 3 (8th), 4 (9th), 3 (10th) – 43 points
Trevor Bauer (CIN): 1 (5th), 3 (7th), 2 (8th), 2 (9th), 4 (10th) – 32 points
Trevor Story (COL): 2 (7th), 4 (8th), 1 (9th), 1 (10th) – 23 points
Ronald Acuña Jr. (ATL): 2 (8th), 5 (9th), 5 (10th) – 21 points
Dominic Smith (NYM): 2 (8th), 4 (9th), 2 (10th) – 16 points
Yu Darvish (CHC): 2 (7th), 2 (9th), 2 (10th) – 14 points
Paul Goldschmidt (STL): 1 (7th), 1 (8th), 1 (9th) – 9 points
Brandon Belt (SF): 1 (9th) – 2 points
Wil Myers (SD): 1 (9th) – 2 points
Max Fried (ATL): 1 (10th) – 1 point
Ian Happ (CHC): 1 (10th) – 1 point
Dansby Swanson (ATL): 1 (10th) – 1 point
Ryan Tepera (CHC): 1 (10th) – 1 point
Devin Williams (MIL): 1 (10th) – 1 point
 and Dale Murphy (1982 and ’83) as Braves players to win the NL MVP Award since the team moved to Atlanta in 1966.){kind=link}