Can a pitcher be an MVP?

Question

Can a pitcher get the honors or they can only take the Cy Young?

Answer 1

Yes, pitchers can win MVP, it is just less common then a hitter doing it. Pitchers have won the award seven times, the last pitcher to do so being Dennis Eckersley in 1992.

Answer 2

Yes a pitcher can win the Most Valuable Player award it just dosent happen very often. The reason this occurs is that it is hard for a player that only plays every 5 or 6 days to be the most valuable player for a team that has other players that play every day. The most recent example of a pitcher winning the MVP and CY Young award was Dennis Eckersley in 1992.

Answer 3

Pitchers are eligible for the MVP Awards, and no pitcher has ever won the MVP without also taking home the Cy Young Award that same year (since the CYAs were introduced).

That's de jure. Turning to de facto, we see no pitcher has won MVP since Eckersley (1992 AL), and no starter since Clemens (1986 AL). The voters, and the pool changes every year, have demonstrated -- some have even admitted to -- a bias against pitchers. Some have bought into at least one of the two most popular bullshit criticisms:
(a) "pitchers get the CYA, so they shouldn't be eligible for the MVP as well" -- well, the MVP voting guidelines clearly state that pitchers ARE eligible, and any voter who finds himself incapable of making fair assessments of pitchers should turn in his ballot and disqualify himself (this never happens, of course), or
(b) "pitchers -- starters anyway -- only play every fifth game, they can't be as valuable as a position player" -- utter rot. The value that a starter delivers in his 35 games, the amount of plays in which he is involved, is at least equivalent to what a 154-game starting position player provides -- and remember, for MVP, we're probably talking about league-leading performance. Furthermore, by virtue of contributing so much value per game, a starting pitcher probably provides as much chances for WINNING GAMES as the best hitters do. A pitcher can make the decisive difference in, oh, 20 games; the best hitters, about that many as well.

So those arguments against pitchers contending for the MVPs are poorly conceived and easily deconstructed.

However, reality prevails. We note that Maddux 1995 (finished third) and Martinez 1999 (finished second, and left off one ballot completely) did not win, and if these two performances could not win MVP -- and they were both amazing, Pedro's downright historic -- then we must resign ourselves to the fact that starting pitchers, today, simply cannot win an MVP Award, because the voters have abrogated their complete responsibilities to the cause.

Which really is a pity. In today's digital world, with sabermetrics ever digging a little deeper and sifting a little finer through the mountain of stats, making such value judgments (pun intended) of pitchers compared to position players should be easier than ever before; but many of the writers won't even approach the topic. They simply write off the pitchers. And that's wrong.

Not all the writers are so wantonly, willfully ignorant -- last year Santana got one first-place vote, and it wasn't from a Minnesota writer (my hero) -- but many of them are.

Answer 4

Yes, the pitcher could be both MVP and earn the CY Young award but it very unlikly to happen. It happens about once every hundred years to with both in a single season. In Baseball history there has been very few pitchers win MVP just by it self anyway if any becasue most only pitch 1 out of every 5 games.

Answer 5

They can win both...usually if they win the MVP they win the Cy Young as well. Case and point, Dennis Eckersley in 1992 won both the MVP and Cy Young as a closer for the Oakland A's.

Answer 6

It's happened at least 9 times....

1956 - Don Newcombe (Brooklyn) 27-7 3.06 139 SO
1963 - Sandy Koufax (L A Dodgers) 25-5 1.88 306 SO
1968 - Bob Gibson (St Louis) NL 22-9 1.12 268 SO
1968 - Denny McLain (Detroit) AL 31-6 1.96 280 SO
1971 - Vida Blue (Oakland) AL 24-8 1.82 301 SO
1981 - Rollie Fingers (Mil) AL 6-3 (28 sv) 1.04 61 SO
1984 - Willie Hernandez (Detroit) 9-3 (32 sv) 1.92 112 SO
1986 - Roger Clemens (Boston) 24-4 2.48 238 SO
1992 - Dennis Eckersley (Oakland) 7-1 (51 sv) 1.91 93 SO

Answer 7

Ask Dennis Eckersley, Roger Clemens, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Willie Hernandez, Rollie Fingers, Vida Blue, Denny McLain or Don Newcombe.

Answer 8

yes, if they are the most valuable player, then they should be rewarded for it, a batter can win the batting title and MVP, Golden glove and MVP, why shouldn't a pitcher be able to

Answer 9

MVP, Cy Young it doesn't matter. they can take both

Answer 10

They can win both.