Bryce Harper Chosen As Unanimous Winner of NL MVP

More awards were handed out on Thursday in Major League Baseball with one of them going to Bryce Harper the Washington Nationals young superstar.

Harper had an incredible offensive season, which helped him become the youngest player at 23 to be chosen unanimously as the National League MVP in the history of baseball.

Harper easily outdistanced his fellow finalists Joey Votto from the Cincinnati Reds and Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Harper ended with 420 points and finished ahead of Goldschmidt by 186 points, who ended a distance second.

Harper garnered all of the 30 first-place votes to become only the eighth player to be named unanimous MVP.

The Washington Nationals star was in the NL driver’s seat for the MVP award from opening day of the season.

Harper thanked his teammates and added he was both humbled and excited.

All three of the finalists were on teams that did not reach the postseason. The most recent MVP named that did not play for a playoff bound team was Albert Pujols with St. Louis in 2008.

Theodore Lerner the owner of the Nationals released a statement saying the entire Lerner family extended its congratulations to Harper for his tremendous season in 2015.

Though the season for the Nationals came up very short of expectations, Harper’s did not. He was the leader in the majors for on-base percentage at .460, slugging percentage at .649 and WAR at 9.9.

He is the third youngest player to lead MLB since 1900 in both slugging and OBP trailing only the greats Ty Cobb and Stan Musial.

Now eight players have been unanimous choices for NL MVP with Harper being the youngest.

He tied for the lead in home runs in the NL with 42 and was second best overall in the NL in batting average at .330.

This was his first complete season in right field and Harper ranked fourth amongst all right fielders in the NL with 7 defensive runs saves as well as being a finalist for a Gold Glove.

Harper was only 22 years old and 353 days on the season’s last day and becomes the fourth youngest ever MVP in baseball history. He is the youngest MVP since 1983 when Cal Ripkin Jr. earned the award and the youngest for the NL since 1070 when Johnny Bench won the award.