Jose Altuve is Player of the Year and Curtis
Granderson is Marvin Miller Man of the Year
Altuve Wins Second Straight “Always Game” Award
Presented by Majestic Athletic
New York, NY – Players selected Jose
Altuve as this season’s best player and Curtis Granderson as the one
who most inspires them to a higher level of achievement in their 25th
Players Choice Awards.
Altuve won 2016 Players Choice Awards as both the AL
Outstanding Player and the overall Player of the Year while Granderson was
selected by his peers as winner of the prestigious Marvin Miller Man of the
Year in balloting that was conducted in mid-September and announced Wednesday
night during a 90-minute broadcast on MLB Network and presented by MLB The
Show.
Daniel Murphy, who became one of the game’s
top offensive forces in his first season with the Nationals, earned NL
Outstanding Player honors while Kyle Hendricks and Rick Porcello
were named the Outstanding Pitchers in their respective leagues. The top
rookies were pitcher Michael Fulmer in the AL and shortstop Corey
Seager in the NL, and the Comeback Players were Jose Fernandez, who
died in a tragic boating accident in September, and Mark Trumbo.
The Players Choice Awards, in which the players recognize
each other’s excellence on and off the field, have been presented by the Major
League Baseball Players Association since 1992, with the Players Trust
providing more than $4 million in charitable grants to causes selected by the
winning players.
The winners of the two overall awards – Player of the
Year and Marvin Miller Man of the Year – each receive a $50,000 grant from the
Trust that will go to a charity or charities he selects, while the winners of
awards as top comeback, rookie, pitcher and player in their league each receive
a $20,000 grant.
It was the second time players have honored Granderson
with their prestigious Marvin Miller Man of the Year award, which is named in
honor of the Players Association’s first executive director and given to the
player who most inspires his fellow players through his on-field performances
and contributions to his community. He previously won the Marvin Miller award
in 2009.
Through his Grand Kids Foundation, Granderson inspires and encourages
positive youth development via education, physical fitness and nutrition -
providing tools and resources for educational and societal advancement.
Granderson hosts a
number of annual events including Grand-Giving fundraiser in support of the
Greater Chicago Food Depository, spring training and winter youth clinics and
creative writing competitions for students. The 35-year-old Illinois native
also serves his fellow players as one of their top elected union
representatives.
Altuve, a 5-foot-6 second baseman from Venezuela who has
made the All-Star team in four of his five full seasons with the Astros, batted
.338 to win his second AL batting title in three years and reached career highs
with 24 home runs, a .396 on-base percentage and .531 slugging percentage.
The 26-year-old
also led the AL in hits (216) for the third straight season.
Murphy, 31, a career .288 hitter who hadn’t previously
hit more than 14 homers in a season, picked up during the 2016 where he left
off in the 2015 postseason with the Mets, batting a second-in-the-majors .347
with 25 home runs, 104 RBIs and an NL-leading 47 doubles. His led the NL with a
.985 OPS and a .595 slugging percentage.
The 27-year-old Porcello, a 6-foot-5 right-hander from
New Jersey, who led the majors with 22 wins and a 5.91 strikeout-to-walk ratio
with the Red Sox, lost just four games while posting a 3.15 ERA over 33 starts
and 223 innings for the Red Sox.
Hendricks, a 26-year-old right-hander who relies on
command, led the majors with a 2.13 ERA while going 16-8 for the Cubs over 30
starts and 190 innings. He struck out 170 and walked just 44 batters in the
process.
Fullmer, an Oklahoman who turned 23 during Spring
Training, was 11-7 with a 3.06 ERA over 26 starts and 159 innings for the
Tigers with 132 strikeouts and 42 walks. Called up by the Tigers at the end of
April, he won seven of his first eight decisions and was 9-2 by the All-Star
break.
Seager, a 22-year-old from North Carolina, made the NL
All-Star team in his first year and finished the regular season batting .308
with 26 home runs, 72 RBIs, 105 runs and 40 doubles for the NL West-champion
Dodgers. His 6.1 offensive WAR was second in the NL.
Fernandez won the Players Choice Award as the NL’s
outstanding rookie in 2013 but was limited to 116 innings total in 2014 and
2015 before coming back to form this season with a 16-8 record and 2.86 ERA
over 182.1 innings for the Marlins. The Cuban-born pitcher was only 24 on Sept.
28 when the boat he was riding in crashed into a jetty off the coast of Miami.
Trumbo came off a pretty good year with the Mariners (22
home runs, 64 RBIs) to have a great year after signing with the Orioles. The
30-year-old slugger led the majors with 47 home runs and placed sixth in the AL
with 108 RBIs.
It was also announced that Altuve won his second
consecutive “Always Game” award, presented by Majestic Athletic and given by
the players to their peer who – game in and game out – exhibits grit, tenacity,
perseverance and hustle; all for the benefit of his teammates and fans.
The
announcement program was on MLB Network for the sixth consecutive year and
presented by MLB The Show™ and sponsored by Majestic Athletic.
The winners and finalists for each award were selected by
players on Sept. 20 in league-wide balloting conducted under the supervision of
accounting firm KPMG.
2016 Players Choice Awards Finalists and Winners
(In Bold):
Outstanding Player: Jose
Altuve (Houston Astros); Mookie Betts (Boston Red Sox); Mike Trout (LA
Angels)
Outstanding Pitcher: Zach Britton
(Baltimore Orioles); Corey Kluber (Cleveland Indians); Rick Porcello
(Boston Red Sox)
Outstanding Rookie: Michael
Fulmer (Detroit Tigers); Tyler Naquin (Cleveland Indians); Gary Sanchez (NY
Yankees)
Comeback Player: Yu
Darvish (Texas Rangers); Ian Desmond (Texas Rangers); Mark Trumbo
(Baltimore Orioles)
National League:
Outstanding Player: Nolan
Arenado (Colorado Rockies); Kris Bryant (Chicago Cubs); Daniel Murphy
(Washington Nationals)
Outstanding Pitcher: Kyle
Hendricks (Chicago Cubs); Clayton Kershaw (Los Angeles Dodgers); Max
Scherzer (Washington Nationals)
Outstanding Rookie: Aledmys
Diaz (St. Louis Cardinals); Corey Seager (Los Angeles Dodgers); Trea
Turner (Washington Nationals)
Comeback Player: Jose
Fernandez (Miami Marlins); Rich Hill (Los Angeles Dodgers); Jean Segura
(Arizona Diamondbacks)
Either League:
Player of Year: Jose Altuve
(Houston Astros); Mookie Betts (Boston Red Sox); David Ortiz (Boston Red Sox)
Man of the Year: Curtis
Granderson (NY Mets); Anthony Rizzo (Chicago Cubs); Justin Turner (Los
Angeles Dodgers)
For more information on the Players Choice Awards, please
click here:
For the complete list of previous winners, please click
here:
About the MLBPA
The Major League Baseball Players Association (www.MLBPLAYERS.com)
is the collective bargaining representative for all professional baseball
players of the thirty Major League Baseball teams and serves as the exclusive
group licensing agent for commercial and licensing activities involving active
Major League baseball players. On behalf of its members, it operates the
Players Choice licensing program and Players Choice Awards, which benefit the
needy through the Major League Baseball Players Trust (www.PlayersTrust.org
), a charitable foundation established and run entirely by Major League
baseball players. Follow: @MLB_Players; @MLBPlayersTrust; @MLBPAClubhouse.
