In a unanimous decision, Twins catcher Joe Mauer was named the 2009 American League’s Most Valuable Player on Monday. Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira and shortstop Derek Jeter finished second and third, respectively.
Mauer received 27 of 28 first-place votes after leading the league in batting average (.365), on-base percentage (.444) and slugging percentage (.587). No other catcher has ever led the league in those three categories and he even threw in a Gold Glove this season, just for good measure.
Not to take anything away from Teixeira, Jeter or Miguel Cabrera (who finished fourth), but there simply was no other choice for this award than Mauer. He was phenomenal and most likely parlayed his ’09 season into a fat contract extension. (Mauer becomes a free agent in 2011.)
Photo from fOTOGLIF
