St. Louis Cardinals slugger Paul Goldsmitdt has been named the National League MVP, receiving 22 of 30 first-place votes and eight seconds from a Baseball Writers’ Association of America panel. This is the 35-year-old player’s first MVP honor of his career.
Goldschmidt beat out fellow teammate Nolan Arenado and San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado for the award, grabbing a total of 380 points. Machado came in second place with seven first-place votes and 291 points, while Arenado was third, grabbing one first-place vote and 232 points.
“I think definitely as you age, you have to adapt, and that’s some of what I’ve tried to do. I’ve tried to get ahead of it,” Goldschmidt said after receiving the accolade. “You can’t just try to do the same thing you did the year before. But yeah, kind of the stigma that as you get older, you’re going to keep getting worse. I mean, nobody likes that. They don’t like being told you can’t do something, so it’s definitely motivation.”
The veteran slugger hit .317 with 35 home runs and 115 RBIs this season while also leading the National League in slugging and OPS with .578 and .981 respectively.
