Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor has been beaten out for the National League MVP award by Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani -- an expected outcome that is now official. Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte was the other finalist for the award.
Ohtani received 30 first-place votes, marking the third time he's won an MVP award unanimously, while Lindor received 23 second-place votes and seven third-place votes.
Lindor had a monster season on both sides of the ball, finishing with 7.8 fWAR. Ohtani (9.1 fWAR) was the only NL player ahead of Lindor.
In 689 plate appearances over 152 regular season games, Lindor slashed .273/.344/.500 with 33 home runs, 39 doubles, 107 runs scored, and 91 RBI.
Lindor's 138 OPS+ was the highest of his career.
Defensively, Lindor was worth 16 Outs Above Average, putting him in the 99th percentile.
This was Lindor's first top-three MVP finish.
He finished in the top 10 on five other occasions (2022 and 2023 for the Mets, and 2016, 2017, and 2018 for Cleveland).
While Lindor would've been a worthy recipient of the award, it was impossible to overcome Ohtani, who was the first player ever to hit 50-plus home runs and steal 50-plus bases in a single season.
Ohtani, who did not pitch this season while recovering from Tommy John surgery and does not play the field, had his best offensive season ever as he was able to focus only on offense and dedicate all of his energy to it.
In 731 plate appearances over 159 regular season games, Ohtani slashed .310/.390/.646 with 54 home runs, 38 doubles, seven triples, 130 RBI, 134 runs scored, and 59 stolen bases.
His prior high for stolen bases in a season came in 2021, when he swiped 26 bags for the Angels.
Ohtani is the first player who was strictly a DH to win the MVP award in either league.