HOUSTON — Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros and Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs were named unanimous winners of the 2026 Most Valuable Player Awards on Thursday night, the Baseball Writers' Association of America announced on MLB Network. It is the first time since the Cy Young Award began in 1956 that both MVPs and both Cy Young winners were unanimous in the same season, a day after Jacob Misiorowski and Cam Schlittler swept the Cy Young voting.
Alvarez, a designated hitter limited to 48 games in 2025 by injuries, won his first AL batting title at .316 and set career highs with 42 home runs and 106 RBIs, finishing behind the Orioles' Pete Alonso in both. He received all 30 first-place votes and is the Astros' third MVP, after Jeff Bagwell in 1994 and Jose Altuve in 2017, and only the second player to win the award at DH, after Shohei Ohtani. "I'm proud I was able to maintain my health all year and worked hard to stay healthy this year," Alvarez said.
Crow-Armstrong, the Cubs' center fielder, hit 45 home runs and stole 41 bases, only the seventh 40-40 season in major league history, and also received all 30 first-place votes. He is the Cubs' first unanimous MVP. He finished ahead of the Dodgers' Ohtani, who had won three straight MVP awards. "Tonight's kind of the right time for me to appreciate who I won the award over," Crow-Armstrong said.
Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero was second in the AL and Kansas City's Bobby Witt Jr. third.
Source: MLB.com
Drawn from public records; drafted with AI and edited by Peter Gorman before publication.
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