NEW YORK -- With his 2025 honor in hand, Juan Soto now has more LatinoMVP awards than all but one man.
Soto on Saturday received his 2025 National League LatinoMVP award from Latino Sports, a publication that created the honor and has administered it since 1989. Over the last five years, Soto has won it three times (2021, 2024, 2025), matching Juan Gonzalez for second-most in history.
Only Albert Pujols, with an astonishing nine consecutive LatinoMVP awards from 2003-11, has more.
“Pujols has been inspiring,” Soto said upon accepting the award, noting that the longtime Cardinals and Angels star managed him during this year’s World Baseball Classic. “He shared a lot of stuff with me in that short period. I’m really excited to be in a list where he is at the top. We’ll see who is going to be there at the end.”
Soto overcame a slow start to win the 2025 award with a season that included 160 games played, 43 homers, a league-leading .396 on-base percentage and a career-high 38 stolen bases, which also tied for the NL lead. He finished third in the Baseball Writers’ Association of America MVP voting behind Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber.
Latino Sports created the LatinoMVP award in 1989, in response to a perceived snub when Robin Yount won the American League MVP over Rubén Sierra. Sierra took home the inaugural honor, which was initially given to a single Major League player. The publication expanded the initiative in 2003 to include one LatinoMVP award for each league.
“I think it’s huge for the Latin community, [for] Latin players that play in the big leagues to be recognized the way you guys do it,” Soto said. “It’s a pleasure. We represent the whole Latin community -- Dominican, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, everywhere.”