The Cleveland Indians have had a hard time getting the accolades they deserve, and these are just four times a player got robbed of the AL MVP award.
Here’s today’s theme; the Cleveland Indians market is why the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award has rarely come to the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. There’s no other way to describe the sheer disrespect some of the games greatest hitters have been treated by MVP voters. It’s just been a travesty.
That’s not to say that every year an Indians player deserves to win, because that’s not true. Yet, in the last 30 years, there have been four players, and several more seasons, where the Indians dang sure should’ve brought home some hardware.
No Indians player has won the AL MVP (or any MVP technically) since 1953. If you think the Indians haven’t had MVP worthy caliber players in the last 67 years, boy, do we have news for you. That’s why looking at four Indians players who got robbed of the regular season hardware.
Honorable Mention
Before we get to the four names, let’s take a look at two players who had great years but maybe fell just short. First up is 2014 and Michael Brantley. Brantley finished third and had a strong case to warrant consideration for the MVP. The only problem is that while Brantley had comparable stats to winner Mike Trout, his team actually was really good that year; winning 98 games. Even if Brantley had a better year than Trout, he’d still be falling in second behind Victor Martinez who lost out as well. Trout was the right pick but Brantley was still really impressive.
It’s a shame to say but Jim Thome never finished higher than sixth in AL MVP voting. What’s even sadder to say is that Thome’s best year, he only finished seventh. The Cleveland icon hit .304, with 52 home runs and 118 RBI’s. He had arguably the second-best all-around season of anyone not named Alex Rodrigeuz and he was a PED player. That said, this was the year Miguel Tejada clutch-hit his way to an MVP award. While Tejada was a PED player too, his late-season heroics was more than enough to give him the award, at the time. Even if the PED players were removed from the equation and Thomes home team wasn’t penalized yearly for such awards like the MVP, it’d be fair to argue against him winning in 2002. The Indians were just a bad team. Any team that has a losing record should have all of their players disqualified for the MVP award. It should only ever go to a player on a winning club.
How are you the most valuable player if your team is terrible?
Travis Hafner (2005)
Travis “Pronk” Hafner’s 2005 campaign was something special. Despite missing 25 games, Hafner put up some incredible numbers. He had 148 hits, 42 doubles, 33 home runs, 108 RBI’s, and 94 runs scored. Pretty solid numbers but his stats don’t end there. He had a .305 batting average and posted an OPS of 1.003.
Despite helping the Indians back to a winning record and a near playoff birth, Hafner finished fifth.
Hafner’s OPS was second in the league behind Alex Rodriguez, who was still cheating by taking steroids. Despite that Hafner had a better OPS, the major market teams still went and courted most of the MVP votes, predictably. The second and fourth place finishers came from Boston in the form of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. Each man took a lot of the votes for their play (both steroid users). The third-place finisher, Vladimir Guerrero, had a good year but not better than Hafner’s. While a clean player, he did play for the Los Angeles (Anaheim) Angels and LA will always score higher than Cleveland in the “popularity” contest.
Of the top five, only two – Hafner and Guerrero – aren’t known for their steroid use. So yes, Hafner deserved the award more than three known cheaters. Hafner and Guerrero had near-identical numbers, but Hafner still had the better season.
You can’t argue that clean players should always win, and in a dead heat against Guerrero, the only reason Hafner received fewer votes is due to the market. Hafner absolutely deserved to win the 2005 AL MVP.
Hafner’s 2006 season was even better than his 2005 season, and in eight fewer games to boot. The only difference in the seasons is that the Minnesota Twins were really dominant and had three players in the top seven. With the exception of Ortiz (3rd), 2006 didn’t see any (known) PED-players in the top eight. So it’s harder to make a case for Hafner winning it in 2006, as opposed to 2005, despite the better statistical season.
As noted, Hafner missed 25 games during the 2005 season. Had Hafner played 162 games, at the rate he was hitting, he would’ve had 39 home runs, 50 doubles, 111 runs scored, 128 RBI’s, and 93 walks. That’s a stat line that can only be surmised with three letters. M. V. P.
Roberto Alomar (1999)
Sandy Alomar was a constant for the Cleveland Indians for a decade. He wasn’t the only All-Star talent in his family, however, as his younger brother was also pretty dang good. So when the Indians acquired younger-brother Robbie in 1999, the Indians were off to the races.
Roberto Alomar had three really good seasons in Cleveland, with his second-best year coming in 2001. He ended up fourth in the MVP voting that year, one spot above teammate Juan Gonzales. It’s hard to argue that Alomar had a good enough season to win the MVP. While Jason Giambi (2nd) was a PED player and Bret Boone was playing far above his normal talent level, just look at what Ichiro Suzuki did that year and tell someone that he wasn’t the MVP that year. He had 242 hits that year, hit .350, scored 127 runs, had 30 walks, and only struck out 53 times. Sure he was a rookie, technically speaking, but he really wasn’t. He had been playing pro ball in Japan since he was 18 and from 1994 to 2000, Ichiro never hit below .342.
Ichiro more than deserved to win the 2001 AL MVP. He just didn’t deserve to win the 2001 AL Rookie of the Year; because he wasn’t one.
It’s in 1999, however, that Alomar got robbed by his address. Another case of an Indians player losing out due to his zip code. That year, Red Sox’s Pedro Martinez came in second and the Rangers’ Ivan Rodriguez came in first. Let’s ignore that a pitcher should rarely if ever, win the MVP award (and definitely not in 1999), and let’s just throw Martinez out. Position players affect more games than starting pitching, ergo a position player should always rank higher than a starting pitcher for MVPs.
As for the winner, Rodriguez, Alomar had a flat out better year. Alomar had a higher on-base percentage, a higher OPS, had more RBI’s, more stolen bases, more walks, more runs (138 for Alomar, 116 for Rodriguez), and led his team to a better season than Rodriguez.
Again, a Cleveland player falls due to the fact that Rodriguez played in Dallas, (Arlington) and Alomar played off the beaches of Lake Erie.
Jose Ramirez (2017/2018)
Jose Ramirez finished third in the AL MVP voting in both 2017 and 2018. He got screwed both years.
Jose Altuve cheated to win in 2017, even if he didn’t take PED’s. The cheating Houston Astros have a long history of tipping their batters as to the pitches that are coming. Altuve’s entire career is now marred by that one fact. Because of that, his MVP should not count. MVP voters are a daffy bunch and had Altuve not been a candidate, it’s likely that Ramirez would’ve gotten his votes. Why? Because second place was a rookie and the MVP voters rarely vote in early 20-something-rookies with no track record.
The runner up that year was rookie Aaron Judge. While Judge had big, gaudy numbers, frankly, you tend to avoid giving the award to rookies. The rationale is simple, you don’t want to avoid having to explain why a one-year-wonder got the award over a steady and regularly impressive veteran. So yes, you disqualify Judge, who’s been a disappointment ever since that season.
You can excuse the votes at the time. For Altuve, he had a monster year and Judge was the new “hotness” that everyone was talking about, so fair enough. That said, Ramirez got screwed because of where he played. The Indians won 102 games that year and was arguably the best regular-season team in the league. Had he played in a major market, he would’ve won in a landslide.
Despite all that, voters didn’t know about Altuve’s cheating ways in 2017 and Judge looked like he was the next Mike Trout (he’s not).
What there was no excuse for was the absolute railroading Ramirez received in 2018. Ramirez absolutely crushed the ball in 2018, and while Mookie Betts had a good year, his season was not as impressive statistically as Ramirez. Most of Betts’ big stats were dependent on other people doing their jobs. Yes, he had more hits and walks than Ramirez, but his big take away was his 129 runs (same as Francisco Lindor). Without his teammates, most of what made Betts seasons so good wouldn’t even register.
For Ramirez, he had more home runs, more RBI’s, more walks, fewer strikeouts, and more stolen bases. The only logical reason why Betts received the AL MVP and not Ramirez, is due to where Ramirez played. Again a major market team gets the MVP. Statistically, Betts did not have a better season. It’s just that his team, Boston, is in a bigger market and was a World Series contender.
Ramirez got robbed. Again.
Albert Belle (1994/1995/1996)
In the grand scheme of things, Albert Belle isn’t the most beloved Cleveland Indians player of all time. He’s had his share of controversies, from corked bats to beyond-anger fueled outbursts at teammates, all the way down to chasing down kids while in his automobile on Halloween. He’s stalked his ex-girlfriend and lord knows what else.
That’s the long way of saying that Belle’s a bad dude. A bad dude who should’ve been a multi-time MVP.
For three straight seasons, Belle had to deal with the “Cleveland tax”. It’s not hard to suggest that had Belle put up the same numbers in Boston or New York from 1994-1996, that he’d of won three straight AL MVP’s. In the strike-shortened season of 1994, Belle had near exact numbers to Frank Thomas. Both men’s teams were at the top of the AL in records and both men were doing ungodly things.
He didn’t so much get screwed in 1994. No, it was more of a case that had had Belle had a full season of play to his name, he may have outlasted Thomas down the stretch and out hit him for the year.
In 1995 he was robbed, flat out robbed, by Mo Vaughn of all people. Belle had better stats than Vaungh in every category except in stolen bases. The only stat that Vaungh and Belle were a wash on was RBI’s, where both men had the same total. That’s it. Everything else went to Belle. Even more impressive is that Belle did all that in fewer at-bats (only four less but still). Belle was outright mugged in 1995 by the voting committee and it was because of his address (and possible anger issues).
In 1996, Belle outperformed MVP winner Juan Gonzales without fail. More hits, more runs scored, more home runs, more RBI’s, and a better OPS. The slight issue with this one is that Alex Rodriguez, who finished in second just ahead of Belle’s third-place spot, had even incredible numbers as well and there was a case for Rodriguez in 1996 to be an MVP. Both Belle and Rodriguez were seemingly penalized for not playing in a huge market. For Belle, it was Cleveland and for Rodriguez it was Seattle.
A bit of MLB trivia, Gonzales is one of the few men to win the AL MVP and not make the All-Star game in the same season.