Thursday's AL and NL Most Valuable Player announcements will likely bring something we haven't seen in six years.
The Yankees' Aaron Judge and/or the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani have received MVP honors in each of the past five seasons. This year, Judge isn't an AL MVP finalist. That distinction belongs to Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez, Rays superstar Junior Caminero and the Royals' Bobby Witt Jr., who will finish inside the top four in MVP voting for a third straight year.
Ohtani is up to take home the fifth MVP trophy of his career and his third in three seasons with the Dodgers, but the NL competition is extremely tough. Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong seems like the favorite after his phenomenal 2026 season on both offense and defense. And we can't rule out Brewers second baseman Brice Turang, who keeps raising his game every year.
Here is the case for each MVP Award finalist, presented in alphabetical order, before the winners are announced at 7 p.m. ET on MLB Network.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Yordan Alvarez, DH, Astros
Alvarez’s 2026 season was so dominant that not even a power drought in the month of August stopped him from putting up terrific offensive numbers.
The slugger won the AL batting title with a .316 average and led the league in on-base percentage (.432), slugging percentage (.601), OPS (1.033), total bases (341), walks (109), extra-base hits (77) and Baseball-Reference offensive WAR (7.2). He finished second in RBIs (106) and tied for second in home runs (42), both of which were career highs.
Alvarez was named AL Player of the Month in March/April and July and led the Majors in batting average, OBP and slugging, becoming the fourth player this century to lead MLB in all three categories, joining Aaron Judge in 2025, Miguel Cabrera in 2013 and Barry Bonds in 2002. The previous three were named MVP in their respective leagues.
Alvarez is the third player since 1970 to win the AL batting title while hitting at least 40 homers, joining Judge (2025) and Cabrera (2012-13). He was so feared as a hitter that he drew 33 intentional walks, breaking Jeff Bagwell’s club record of 27 in 1997. The only player in AL history to have more intentional walks in a season was Judge with 36 last year.
According to Baseball Savant, Alvarez led qualified hitters in expected wOBA (.442), expected BA (.318) and expected slugging (.636), and he ranked in the 99th percentile in average exit velocity (94.4 mph). -- Brian McTaggart
Junior Caminero, 3B, Rays
It’s tough to make a statistically based argument for Caminero over, say, Alvarez.
Caminero and Alvarez hit the same number of home runs, and Alvarez drove in five more runs. Alvarez’s OPS+ was 190, while Caminero’s was 144. Even as a DH, Alvarez outpaced Caminero in both Baseball-Reference’s and FanGraphs’ versions of Wins Above Replacement.
The case for Caminero is more narrative-based.
The 23-year-old All-Star was the best player on the American League's best team, helping the Rays dramatically outperform preseason expectations. His club won 98 games compared to the Astros’ 81 -- or, in Witt’s case, the Royals’ 69.
Maybe the strongest point in Caminero’s favor is that he started 161 games at third base, taking on the added stress of playing defense on a daily basis while Alvarez played only 25 of his 158 games in left field. Caminero was not a Gold Glove-caliber defender, but he improved significantly as the season went on.
And, of course, Caminero was one of the five or six best hitters in the AL. His 142 wRC+ was the sixth-best mark in the league behind Alvarez, Randy Arozarena, Willson Contreras, Ben Rice and Pete Alonso.
He slashed .276/.360/.524 with 42 homers and 101 RBIs. He worked nearly twice as many walks (79) as he did in his first full season last year (41), when he finished ninth in the AL MVP voting. He struck out only 129 times, which is rare for a young hitter with his raw power. -- Adam Berry
Bobby Witt Jr., SS, Royals
In addition to Witt being one of the best all-around players in the league, his case for MVP is centered around how much he impacts the game by himself.
Consider his 94 runs scored in 2026, fewer than fellow finalists Yordan Alvarez (105) and Junior Caminero (100). But the offenses around them weren't equally productive. Kansas City ranked 22nd in the Majors with 690 runs scored, while its .694 OPS with runners in scoring position was lower than that of the Rays and Astros (.774).
That context makes what Witt did on the basepaths worth a closer look.
According to Baseball-Reference, Witt took an extra base on 66.7% of his opportunities, compared to 36% for Caminero and 22.9% for Alvarez. That doesn't include Witt's 45 stolen bases, the second most in the AL. He also drew a career-high 67 walks, creating additional opportunities to use his speed.
Witt provided offensive production of his own, too, leading qualified AL shortstops in batting average (.281), doubles (33) and slugging percentage (.441).
His contributions extended to the field, where his +24 outs above average led all Major Leaguers at the position. Despite his first career stint on the injured list limiting him to 143 games, Witt accumulated an AL-best 7.0 fWAR.
While Alvarez and Caminero made their cases with offensive production, Witt's contributions across every aspect of the game offered a different perspective on what makes a player valuable. -- Perla Paredes
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF, Cubs
There was a point in the middle of the summer, as Crow-Armstrong went scorched earth on baseball diamonds around the Majors, when there was fascinating discourse about whether the Cubs’ star center fielder could overtake two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani as the National League’s MVP.
By the end of September, was there even a debate?
Crow-Armstrong took flight at an historic rate, turning in one of the best all-around seasons not only in Cubs history, but in baseball history. He ended with an MLB-leading 10.6 fWAR, putting him 3.6 WAR ahead of second-ranked Bobby Witt Jr. (7.0) of the Royals. Not since 1956, when Mickey Mantle topped Duke Snider, had there been a gap of at least 3.0 WAR between the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked players in baseball.
Crow-Armstrong tied Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead in home runs (45), while also finishing second in the NL in stolen bases (41). In the process, he became the seventh player in MLB history with a 40-40 season. Crow-Armstrong, Ohtani (2024) and Alfonso Soriano (2006) are the only players to have at least 45 homers, 40 steals and 30 doubles in one year.
Crow-Armstrong played all 162 games, posted a .372 on-base percentage and led the NL in slugging (.570) and OPS (.942). He had 83 walks and 107 RBIs and led baseball with 119 runs. On defense, the center fielder’s +26 fielding run value set a Statcast-era record for an outfielder, while his +26 outs above average tied Byron Buxton (2017) for the most by an outfielder. -- Jordan Bastian
Shohei Ohtani, TWP, Dodgers
By definition, it doesn't get much more valuable than Ohtani when he's producing as a two-way player. He had a 143 OPS+, meaning that he was considered 43% better than league average offensively, and he hit 30 home runs with an .889 OPS. He rounded out his case with 85 2/3 elite innings, going 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA and a 237 ERA+.
But injuries derailed Ohtani's two-way season, as he did not pitch in a game after July 3. He most prominently dealt with ongoing left knee and right biceps issues that kept him off the mound and culminated in a season-ending slump at the plate.
Ohtani did not have the best offensive season in the NL, so the question may be how much his pitching enhanced his real and perceived value. No NL pitcher tossed at least 80 innings and had an ERA lower than Ohtani -- and none of them were also their team's starting DH. As with all things involving Ohtani, the case for and against him winning his fifth career MVP Award is not as straightforward as it may seem at face value. -- Sonja Chen
Brice Turang, 2B, Brewers
It’s been three years since incoming Brewers manager Pat Murphy predicted a quantum leap for Turang, and the infielder keeps taking them. After rubbing shoulders with the likes of Team USA’s Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper in the World Baseball Classic, Turang set career highs for home runs (21), RBIs (100), on-base percentage (.366) and slugging percentage (.450) during the 2026 regular season while stealing 19 bases and playing Gold Glove defense at second base. And he was his best when it mattered most, leading the Majors for September in average (.361) and on-base percentage (.475) as the Brewers secured MLB's best record and home-field advantage throughout the postseason.
Wherever he finishes among the finalists, Turang will become the first Brewers infielder to finish in the top 3 in MVP Award balloting since first baseman Prince Fielder finished third in 2011 (the year left fielder Ryan Braun won the honor). And Turang will be the Brewers’ first middle infielder to finish in the top three since Robin Yount won the AL MVP Award at shortstop in 1982.
“He plays every day, whether he's injured or not. Plays every day,” Murphy said of Turang. “He's a force on the bases. Is a force at the plate. Will get a bunt down when you need it. Hit a homer. Hit a double. He's a baseball rat. This guy loves baseball. This year he went from ‘good player’ to, like, a dude.” -- Adam McCalvy