Baltimore Orioles: Machado finishes fifth in MVP voting; Britton finishes11th
The Baltimore Orioles have failed to win the MVP Award since the 1991 season. And with Mike Trout winning the 2016 MVP Award, the drought is going to go on for at least another year.
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout won his second career MVP Award, and as long as Trout is around, it seems like everyone is competing to be second best. However, two Baltimore Orioles ended up on the final ballot…just not in the top three.
Third baseman Manny Machado finished fifth in the MVP voting and closer Zach Britton finished 11th in the voting. Machado wasn’t really much of a surprise; he finished fifth with a 6.5 Fangraphs WAR in the American League, so it was fitting he finished fifth for MVP.
Machado had quite the year for himself, hitting .294/.343/.533 with 37 homers and 96 RBI. Machado ended up missing out on the Gold Glove Award last week because he spent half the season covering shortstop for the injured J.J. Hardy. He was one of six players to appear on all 30 ballots and placed as high as fifth on a few of them. Machado finished with 150 points which was just enough to edge out retiring DH David Ortiz, who finished with 147 points.
Britton, who had a historical season for the Orioles, finished 11th in the voting. The move was a bit of a shocker considering the Orioles heavily relied on him throughout the season. Britton’s presence on the team proved to be of importance during the American League Wild Card Game, when manager Buck Showalter didn’t use Britton in a late inning situation. The Orioles went on to lose the game and were knocked out of postseason contention.
Britton did place fourth in the American League Cy Young Award voting, ahead of Corey Kluber, Justin Verlander and winner Rick Porcello. That award alone tells you just how spectacular Britton’s season was.
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Let’s face it, it’s going to be hard to pry the MVP Award from Mike Trout’s hands. But if an Oriole can finish the in the top three next year, then it could mean good things to come for a ball club who is still in the hunt to win a World Series trophy.
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