Box-Toppers’ pick Ohtani wins AL MVP, but Acuña wins NL MVP over our pick, Alonso

Shohei Ohtani of the Angels was voted 2023 American League Most Valuable Player Wednesday. He was also Box-Toppers’ choice as AL MVP.

Box-Toppers MVP ballot

Here is a look at Box-Toppers’ 2023 Most Valuable Player ballot selections for the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) 2023 postseason awards. The ballot requires votes out to 10 places for each league’s top overall player.
Players are shown with their team and their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2023.
Note: Previous versions of this ballot showed incorrect players or Box-Toppers point totals in the bottom five on the NL MVP ballot. This has been corrected and updated.

AL Most Valuable Player
	Player	Team	BTP
1	Shohei Ohtani	Angels	19.4
2	Kyle Tucker	Astros	12.5
3	Aaron Judge	Yankees	12.0
4	Chris Bassitt	Blue Jays	20.1
5	Kevin Gausman	Blue Jays	18.7
6	Gerrit Cole	Yankees	17.0
7	Luis Castillo	Mariners	16.1
8	Bobby Witt Jr.	Royals	7.7
9	Max Scherzer	Rangers	15.4
10	Brandon Drury	Angels	7.5
NL Most Valuable Player
	Player	Team	BTP
1	Pete Alonso	Mets	12.0
2	Ronald Acuña Jr.	Braves	10.7
3	Spencer Strider	Braves	21.1
4	Freddie Freeman	Dodgers	10.0
5	Nolan Gorman	Cardinals	10.0
6	Christian Yelich	Brewers	9.2
7	Juan Soto	Padres	9.0
8	Jesus Luzardo	Marlins	17.8
9	Freddy Peralta	Brewers	17.7
10	Zac Gallen	Diamondbacks	16.7

Box-Toppers gives batters a generous, if somewhat arbitrary, benefit of the doubt in these rankings. In cases where batters are directly compared to pitchers, Box-Toppers ranks batters as if their season Box-Toppers point total were doubled. For example, in rankings for AL MVP, Shohei Ohtani ranked second among AL players with 19.4 Box-Toppers points, behind Blue Jays pitcher Chris Bassitt (20.1). But Box-Toppers arbitrarily doubles batters’ point totals in figuring these rankings. That doubles the 9.7 points Ohtani earned as a batter, giving him an adjusted total of 29.1, moving him ahead of Bassitt.
While MVP is traditionally a batter's award, it has been awarded to pitchers either when they have a dominant season, no batters particularly rise to the occasion—or both.

However, in the National League, Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Braves was voted MVP—he finished second in Box-Toppers’ NL MVP ballot behind Pete Alonso of the Mets.

A look at Box-Toppers’ Most Valuable Player ballot.

A look at AL MVP voting and how candidates fared in Box-Toppers points.

A look at NL MVP voting and how candidates fared in Box-Toppers points.

Voting was done by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). The results were similar in the separate vote by the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA), in which Box-Toppers voted Ohtani and Alonso for the awards.

AL Most Valuable Player

Ohtani won 30 of the 30 first-place votes for AL MVP.

Ohtani earned 19.4 Box-Toppers points in 2023, second among all AL players, behind Blue Jays pitcher Chris Bassitt (20.1). However, in figuring postseason awards in categories in which batters and pitchers are eligible for the same honor, Box-Toppers arbitrarily doubles the Box-Toppers point totals for batters to make it more difficult for pitchers to win what are often considered “batter’s awards” such as the MVP.

Ohtani earned 9.7 points as a batter and 9.7 as a pitcher. Doubling his 9.7 batting points and adding it to his 9.7 pitching points, gives him a 29.1 adjusted total, beating Bassitt’s 20.1 total.

Ohtani earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors 16 times in 2023—eight as a designated hitter and eight as a starting pitcher. If separated, Ohtani’s 9.7 points as a pitcher would rank 28th among AL pitchers and his 9.7 points as a batter would rank third among AL batters.

Finishing second in AL MVP voting was Rangers shortstop Corey Seager, who earned 6.2 Box-Toppers points in 2023, 22nd among AL batters.

Finishing third in AL MVP voting was Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien, who earned 6.7 Box-Toppers points in 2023, 15th among AL batters.

With Ohtani as Box-Toppers’ choice for AL MVP, here’s how our second- to fifth-place choices fared in balloting:

• Kyle Tucker, Astros, 12.5 Box-Toppers points, second among AL batters, finished fifth in AL MVP voting.

• Aaron Judge, Yankees, 12.0 Box-Toppers points, third among AL batters, finished 15th in AL MVP voting. (Judge won AL MVP in 2022, though Box-Toppers placed him second on the ballot last year, behind Ohtani.)

• Blue Jays pitchers Chris Bassitt and Kevin Gausman were fourth and fifth on Box-Toppers’ AL MVP ballot. Bassitt had 20.1 Box-Toppers points, first among AL pitchers and Gausman had 18.7 points, third among AL pitchers. Neither received any AL MVP votes.

Other notable vote-getters:

• Gunnar Henderson of the Orioles finished eighth in AL MVP voting after winning AL Rookie of the Year. Henderson led AL rookie batters with 7.5 Box-Toppers points, eighth among all AL batters.

• Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole finished 11th in AL MVP voting after winning the AL Cy Young Award. He was one of two full-time pitchers to receive AL MVP votes (Sonny Gray of the Twins was the other). Cole earned 17.0 Box-Toppers points, fourth among AL pitchers.

The AL batter with the most 2023 Box-Toppers points who did not receive AL MVP votes is Brandon Drury of the Red Sox, whose 7.5 points was fifth among AL batters.

The AL player with the fewest Box-Toppers points to receive AL MVP votes was Bo Bichette of the Blue Jays, who finished 16th in voting and earned 2.0 Box-Toppers points, 97th among AL batters.

NL Most Valuable Player

Acuna, who won 30 of 30 first-place votes for NL MVP, was second among NL batters with 10.7 Box-Toppers points, which was 41st among all players.

But Alonso passed Acuna for the lead Sept. 27, in the final days of the season, with 12.0 Box-Toppers points. Alonso finished tied for 17th in NL MVP voting, receiving only one eighth-place vote.

Alonso won Player of the Game honors nine times in 2023 vs. Acuna’s eight. Though he was on a team that won 75 games vs. the Braves’ 104, he was the NL batter who most often was the key player to his team’s wins.

Acuna frankly smokes Alonso in a head-to-head statistical comparison, with more runs (149 vs. 92), hits (217 vs. 123), doubles (35 vs. 21), stolen bases (73 vs. 4), batting average (.338 vs. .217), on-base percentage (.416 vs. .318), slugging percentage (.596 vs. .504) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.012 vs. .821). Alonso led in home runs (46 vs. 41) and runs batted in (118 vs. 106).

Third place on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP ballot is Braves pitcher Spencer Strider. Though Strider had the most 2023 Box-Toppers points of any player (21.1), both Alonso and Acuna ranked ahead of him on Box-Toppers MVP ballot due to their batter adjusted point total. In in figuring postseason awards in categories in which batters and pitchers are eligible for the same honor, Box-Toppers arbitrarily doubles the Box-Toppers point totals for batters. That gives Alonso an adjusted total of 24.0 and Acuna an adjusted total of 21.4, both beating Strider.

Strider received no NL MVP votes after finishing fourth in NL Cy Young Award voting.

Finishing second in NL MVP voting was Mookie Betts of the Dodgers, who earned 8.5 Box-Toppers points, eighth among NL batters.

Finishing third in NL MVP voting was Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers, who earned 10.0 Box-Toppers points, third among NL batters. Freeman was fourth place on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP ballot.

Other notable vote-getters:

• Corbin Carroll of the Diamondbacks finished fifth in NL MVP voting after winning NL Rookie of the Year. Despite a great statistical season, Carroll didn’t fare as well in Box-Toppers points, earning only 3.0, 89th among NL batters, earning just three Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors all season.

• Padres pitcher Blake Snell finished 13th in NL MVP voting after winning the NL Cy Young Award. Snell earned 14.7 Box-Toppers points, sixth among NL pitchers. He was one of four NL pitchers to earn NL MVP votes.

• Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen finished tied for 23rd in NL MVP voting. He had the most 2023 Box-Toppers points among pitchers receiving NL MVP votes, 16.7, which was fourth among NL pitchers.

The NL batter with the most 2023 Box-Toppers points who did not receive NL MVP votes is Nolan Gorman of the Cardinals, whose 10.0 points was fourth among NL batters.

There were two players who ranked outside the top 100 NL batters in Box-Toppers points who received NL MVP votes: Ozzie Albies of the Braves, 16th in voting, whose 2.0 Box-Toppers points was 116th among NL batters, and Ha-Seong Kim of the Padres, 15th in voting, whose 1.5 Box-Toppers points was 131st among NL batters.

•

This is the second straight year both Ohtani and Alonso have been Box-Toppers’ choices for MVPs. While neither won in 2022, Ohtani has won the AL award in 2023.

Ohtani, Acuna win in IBWAA MVP voting

Box-Toppers votes for postseason awards as a member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA), who also picked Ohtani and Acuna as MVPs.

American League:

• 1st Place: Shohei Ohtani, Angels—662 points

• 2nd Place: Corey Seager, Rangers—381 points

• 3rd Place: Julio Rodriguez, Mariners—263 points

National League:

• 1st Place: Ronald Acuna Jr., Braves—599 points

• 2nd Place: Mookie Betts, Dodgers—439 points

• 3rd Place: Freddie Freeman, Dodgers- 351 points

IBWAA members include more than 800 baseball writers and content creators. Voting for full-season awards takes place prior to the start of the postseason each year, with selections announced in November.

About Box-Toppers

Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.

Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.

For additional updates, follow Box-Toppers on Twitter.

Related

Box-Toppers’ MVP Awards: Ohtani reigns over AL; Alonso edges Acuña in NL

A look at Box-Toppers’ leaders for postseason awards, plus an award finalist overview

Box-Toppers 2023 player rankings leaders

Box-Toppers looks at previous year’s MVP voting: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013

American League Most Valuable Player Award voting

Shohei Ohtani of the Angels was voted AL Most Valuable Player. Below are the AL players in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through 10th-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers points (BTP) for 2023 and their rank among AL batters (except in the case of pitchers, denoted with †, in which case their rank among AL pitcher is shown).

				1st-10th place votes
	AL player	Team	Pos	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Points	BTP	Rank
1	Shohei Ohtani	Angels	pi sp dh	30										420	19.4	*
2	Corey Seager	Rangers	ss		24	6								264	6.2	22
3	Marcus Semien	Rangers	2b		5	8	11	3		3				216	6.7	15
4	Julio Rodríguez	Mariners	cf			8	10	6	3	3				197	4.0	45
5	Kyle Tucker	Astros	rf		1	4	5	9	8	2				178	12.5	2
6	Yandy Díaz	Rays	1b dh			4	1	3	11	4	1	2	2	137	7.0	12
7	Bobby Witt Jr.	Royals	ss				1	4	1	3	8	3	5	83	7.7	4
8	Gunnar Henderson	Orioles	3b dh ss					4	2	4	7	2	2	77	7.5	8
9	Adley Rutschman	Orioles	ca				1		1	4	4	3	4	50	5.0	30
10	José Ramírez	Guardians	3b							4	4	5	2	40	6.2	21
11	Gerrit Cole	Yankees	pi sp				1	1		2	1	2	2	30	17.0	4†
12	Luis Robert Jr.	White Sox	cf						1		2	4	2	21	3.5	54
13	Yordan Alvarez	Astros	dh lf						2		1		3	16	6.5	16
14	Adolis García	Rangers	rf						1	1	1	1		14	6.0	25
15	Aaron Judge	Yankees	rf dh								1	2		7	12.0	3
16	Bo Bichette	Blue Jays	ss									2	1	5	2.0	97
17	J.P. Crawford	Mariners	ss									1	3	5	6.5	18
18	Cal Raleigh	Mariners	ca									1		2	3.0	65
18	Rafael Devers	Red Sox	3b									1		2	7.5	6
18	Isaac Paredes	Rays	3b 1b 2b									1		2	7.2	11
21	Sonny Gray	Twins	pi sp										2	2	10.4	20†
22	Alex Bregman	Astros	3b										1	1	6.0	23
22	Josh Naylor	Guardians	1b										1	1	7.0	13

BTP: Box-Toppers points
* Shohei Ohtani earned 19.4 Box-Toppers points in 2023, which was second among AL players, behind Blue Jays pitcher Chris Bassitt with 20.1 points. However, in cases for awards such as MVP in which pitchers and batters compete, we arbitrarily double batters’ points to make them competitive. Ohtani earned 9.7 points as a pitcher and 9.7 points as a batter. Doubling the 9.7 points Ohtani earned as a batter and adding it to the 9.7 he earned as a pitcher gives him an adjusted total of 29.1, beating Bassitt's 20.1. However, taken separately, Ohtani’s 9.7 points as a batter would rank third among AL batters and his 9.7 points as a pitcher would rank 28th among AL pitchers.
† When an AL pitcher received MVP votes, their Box-Toppers ranking is shown among AL pitchers.

National League Most Valuable Player Award voting

Ronald Acuña Jr. of the Braves was voted NL Most Valuable Player. Below are the NL players in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through 10th-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers points (BTP) for 2023 and their rank among NL batters (except in the case of pitchers, denoted with †, in which case their rank among NL pitcher is shown).

				1st-10th place votes
	NL player	Team	Pos	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Points	BTP	Rank
1	Ronald Acuña Jr.	Braves	rf	30										420	10.7	2
2	Mookie Betts	Dodgers	rf 2b		30									270	8.5	8
3	Freddie Freeman	Dodgers	1b			17	13							227	10.0	3
4	Matt Olson	Braves	1b			13	17							223	4.2	49
5	Corbin Carroll	Diamondbacks	rf lf					20	6	3	1			165	3.0	89
6	Juan Soto	Padres	lf					4	10	4	1	6	1	106	9.0	6
7	Austin Riley	Braves	3b					2	3	4	5	3	4	68	3.0	73
8	Luis Arraez	Marlins	2b					1	6	2	2	6	5	67	7.5	11
9	Francisco Lindor	Mets	ss						1	6	6	2	1	52	4.0	51
10	Cody Bellinger	Cubs	cf 1b					1	2	4	2	3	5	49	5.5	28
11	William Contreras	Brewers	ca					1	1	3	3	3	1	39	5.0	33
12	Bryce Harper	Nationals	dh 1b							3	6	3		36	3.0	74
13	Blake Snell	Padres	pi sp					1		1	2			16	14.7	6†
14	Fernando Tatis Jr.	Padres	rf						1					5	6.0	22
15	Ha-Seong Kim	Padres	2b ss										5	5	1.5	131
16	Ozzie Albies	Braves	2b									2		4	2.0	116
17	Logan Webb	Giants	pi sp								1			3	12.4	11†
17	Pete Alonso	Mets	1b								1			3	12.0	1
19	Marcell Ozuna	Braves	dh									1		2	7.5	12
19	Devin Williams	Brewers	pi cp									1		2	8.0	26†
21	Dansby Swanson	Cubs	ss										2	2	2.5	96
21	Kyle Schwarber	Phillies	dh lf										2	2	5.5	27
23	Zac Gallen	Diamondbacks	pi sp										1	1	16.7	4†
23	Christian Walker	Diamondbacks	1b										1	1	6.0	21
23	TJ Friedl	Reds	cf										1	1	5.0	38
23	Nick Castellanos	Phillies	rf										1	1	7.0	15

BTP: Box-Toppers points
† When an NL pitcher received MVP votes, their Box-Toppers ranking is shown among NL pitchers.