Jose Altuve wins AL MVP, Hosmer finishes 15th

Houston second baseman Jose Altuve was named 2017 American League MVP by the Baseball Writer’s Association of America. He was first on all but three ballots, including Kansas City Star beat writer Rustin Dodd, who voted for Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez. New York’s Aaron Judge, who finished second, was first on the other two ballots.

Kansas City’s Eric Hosmer finished 15th in voting, the highest he has ever finished in MVP voting. He was listed as high as seventh, on Dodd’s ballot, and also received two 8th place votes, one 9th place vote, and four 10th place votes. You can see the final vote tally here, and all ballots here.

Altuve is just the fifth American League second baseman to be named MVP, joining Charlie Gehringer (1937), Joe Gordon (1942), Nellie Fox (1959), and Dustin Pedroia (2008). Altuve finished second in the American League in WAR, according to Fangraphs, with 7.5, behind Judge. He hit .346/.410/.547 with 24 home runs and 32 steals. Jeff Bagwell is the only other player in Houston history to win MVP, winning National League MVP in 1994.

In the National League, Giancarlo Stanton edged Joey Votto for MVP by two votes in one of the closest races ever. You can see final vote totals here.