To no great surprise, Shohei Ohtani repeated as National League MVP, unanimously chosen. However, there was a fair amount of down-ballot love for Arizona players, with Geraldo Perdomo (4th), Corbin Carroll (7th) and Ketel Marte (22nd) all receiving mention, backing up the trio being honored with Silver Sluggers at their positions, earlier in the week. Though particularly in Gerrys case, you could argue he was hard done by. Indeed, I will be doing exactly that shortly. Still, if you had told me at the start of the season that Perdomo would finish in fourth place as MVP, I would have had some of whatever you were on.
Its Perdomos first time appearing on an MVP ballot, and the high ranking is testament to the breakout season and high level of production. He appeared in every game bar one for the D-backs, batted .290 and had an OPS+ of 136. Of particular note, he hit 20 home-runs, having only hit 14 over the previous four seasons and 401 games. That won Geraldo the Silver Slugger award at the shortstop position: he also played solid defense there, and emerged as a team leader, on and off the field, despite only turning twenty-six last month. With this year alone, he arguably paid off the entirety of his contract extension, guaranteed through the end of 2029.
Corbin returns to the MVP results after coming fifth in 2023 the same year he was a unanimous choice in becoming the first Arizona Rookie of the Year. Despite missing some time with a fractured hand, Corbin still managed to set career highs in HR (31) and RBI (84), as well as setting a franchise record for the most exciting play in baseball, hitting seventeen triples. Carrolls fielding also took a perceptible step forward, resulting in him becoming a Golden Glove finalist. His nine assists in RF were beaten only by two players there. In July, Corbin and Marte became the first Diamondbacks since 2005 with RBI in the All-Star Game.
And, speaking of Ketel Theres no arguing Marte had a tricky season, with a number of unwanted distractions, from his house being burgled to the rumors of clubhouse dissatisfaction. But none of it seemed to make much difference between the lines, and Marte got his third set of MVP mention (he previously came fourth in 2019, and third in 2024). Its especially impressive, considering he appeared in only 126 games, missing a month early on with a hamstring problem. Despite that, he was still voted into the line-up for the All-Star Game, becoming the NLs starting second-baseman.
Three Diamondbacks received votes as recently as 2023: in addition to Carrolls fifth place, Christian Walker and Zac Gallen were named on ballots. However, both Walker and Gallen had only a single tenth-place vote. Before that, multiple D-backs were listed in 2017, when Paul Goldschmidt finished third, with J.D. Martinez (14th), Archie Bradley (=20th) and Zack Greinke (=20th) also listed in the results. The last time the D-backs had multiple players in the top ten was 2002, with Randy Johnson (7th) and Curt Schilling (10th). The year before that, on the way to the World Series, Arizona had three in the top eleven, with Luis Gonzalez (3rd) in addition to Schilling (10th) and Johnson (11th). Finally, they had four in 1999, led by Matt Williamss third-place.