As Opening Day at last drew nearer, Freddie Freeman had far greater worries than perfecting his swing and rehearsing his scoops.
Simply having the option to walk a couple of steps was hard enough.
“It wasn’t the way I wanted to start, with COVID,” the Atlanta Braves first baseman said. “I was able to beat it.”
To say the very least.
Freeman effortlessly won the National League MVP grant Thursday, finishing off a difficult year that saw him become so sick with COVID-19 that he asked, “Please don’t take me.”
Freeman got 28 of the 30 in front of the rest of the competition votes in balloting by individuals from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts got the other two firsts to complete second, and San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado was third.
In a season influenced from spring preparing to the World Series by the pandemic, maybe it was fitting the last significant honor of the year went to somebody contaminated by the Covid.
Three weeks before the deferred Opening Day in late July, Freeman’s internal heat level spiked at 104.5 degrees and he lost his feeling of taste and smell. At a certain point, he reviewed prior, he said a little petition since “I wasn’t ready.”
“It impacted me pretty hard,” he said.
Freeman said it took him a little while into the season to discover his balance. He attempted to moderate his energy, as well – he skirted the every day schedule of batting practice on the field and cut down the amount he bounced off a respectable starting point while hanging on sprinters.
The 31-year-old Freeman before long got comfortable, batting .341 with 13 grand slams and 53 RBIs while playing each of the 60 games. An amazing lefty player with the capacity to shower the ball everywhere on the field, he drove the majors with 23 copies and 51 runs.
Supported by the four-time All-Star, the Braves won the NL East for the third sequential season and came quite close to arriving at the World Series unexpectedly since 1999.
NL MVP Award voting – Top 10
Votes rewarded players with 14 points for first place, nine for second, eight for third on down to one for 10th.
| PLAYER | 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | 5TH | 6TH | 7TH | 8TH | 9TH | 10TH | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freddie Freeman, Braves | 28 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 410 |
| Mookie Betts, Dodgers | 2 | 21 | 5 | — | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — | 268 |
| Manny Machado, Padres | — | 2 | 16 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | 221 |
| Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres | — | 2 | 5 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 1 | — | — | 1 | 201 |
| Juan Soto, Nationals | — | 3 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 2 | — | — | 172 |
| Marcell Ozuna, Braves | — | — | 2 | 1 | 11 | 14 | 2 | — | — | — | 167 |
| Trea Turner, Nationals | — | — | — | 2 | — | 1 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 83 |
| Mike Yastrzemski, Giants | — | — | — | 1 | — | 3 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 81 |
| Corey Seager, Dodgers | — | — | — | — | — | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 43 |
| Trevor Bauer, Reds | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 32 |
Freeman is the 6th distinctive part in Braves establishment history to be the NL MVP. In good spirits Jones most as of late took the honor in 1999 – Freeman wears a worn out Braves T-shirt under his uniform that was passed down to him from Jones.
Double cross NL MVP Dale Murphy of the Braves reported Freeman’s success on MLB Network.
Chicago White Sox slugger Jose Abreu acquired the American League MVP, an acknowledgment for driving his group once again into the end of the season games unexpectedly since 2008.
This was the first run through since Ryan Howard and Justin Morneau in 2006 that a couple of first basemen won the MVPs.
Betts was offering to join Frank Robinson as the main players to win the MVP grant in the two classes. The 28-year-old outfielder took the AL honor in 2018 while driving Boston to the World Series title.
Exchanged by the Red Sox to Los Angeles early this year, Betts hit .292 with 16 homers and 39 RBIs and was the impetus in the Dodgers’ rushed to their first title since 1988.
Machado hit .304 with 16 homers and 47 RBIs as San Diego showed up since 2006. Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. completed fourth in the democratic and Washington outfielder Juan Soto was fifth.
Freeman acquired $185,185 and Abreu got $37,037 in contract rewards customized due to the abbreviated season.
This will be the first run through in over 75 years the MVP prizes don’t convey the name and resemblance of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball’s first magistrate.
In an Associated Press story in late June, previous MVPs Barry Larkin, Terry Pendleton and Mike Schmidt said they supported pulling Landis’ name off future plaques as a result of worries over his treatment of Black players.
BBWAA individuals overwhelmingly casted a ballot in October to eliminate any notice of Landis from the MVP prize, and the honor won’t be named for anybody this year. The association will talk about in 2021 whether to name it for another person, with previous Negro Leagues star Josh Gibson and Robinson among those being referenced as conceivable outcomes.
“It’s just time. It really is time for the name to be removed,” Freeman said.
Pendleton works for the Braves, and Freeman focused when his companion stood up over the late spring. Freeman said he thought Robinson’s name on the plaque would be legitimate.
Landis became magistrate in 1920 and no Black competitors played in the majors through his reign that finished when he passed on in 1944. Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s shading boundary in 1947.
Landis’ legacy is “always a complicated story” that includes “documented racism,” official MLB historian John Thorn has said.
In 1931, Landis gave the BBWAA control of picking and introducing the MVPs. During the 1944 World Series, the gathering chose to add Landis’ name to the plaque. His name had showed up on all MVP plaques from that point forward and was included more noticeably than the real victors of the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Memorial Baseball Award.