A Most Valuable Player Award puts a player’s name in the record books in permanent ink. It also puts a spotlight on him with the question of whether he can win it again.
Sixteen MVPs are currently roaming Major League Baseball, with active winners dating to Justin Verlander’s win in 2011. Four current players have won the award at least twice.
This time, we’ll be the ones to ask, “can he win it again?” by putting each of those 16 MVPs into tiers of how likely they are to repeat – or three-peat or four-peat. We'll go in ascending order of likelihood.
Tier 6: Thanks for the memories
Kris Bryant (2016 Cubs), Andrew McCutchen (2013 Pirates), Giancarlo Stanton (2017 Marlins)
Stanton was a postseason hero as recently as eight months ago, so it wouldn’t be a shock to see him return to play at a high level. His greatest obstacle is his health, as pain in both elbows has kept him out all season for the Yankees, although he began a rehab assignment at Double-A on June 10. He’ll have an interesting Hall of Fame case no matter when he retires; no active player has more than Stanton's 429 home runs, and 500 remains a possibility.
Bryant and Stanton established themselves as superstars after early-career excellence, but it has been, perhaps surprisingly, McCutchen who’s had the most consistent career of these three MVP winners. Now on the third season of his return to Pittsburgh, he’s averaged 24 home runs and a 126 OPS+ per 162 games, and he’s hit double-digit homers in all 16 of his big league seasons through 2024.
Bryant’s career has mostly stalled due to injuries sustained since he signed with the Rockies prior to the 2022 season, as he’s played in just 169 total games over three-plus years. He’s currently trying to work his way back from another bout with a chronic back injury. But he’ll always have his MVP and the Cubs’ 2016 World Series championship on his ledger.
Tier 5: Next stop, Cooperstown
Clayton Kershaw (2014 Dodgers), Mike Trout (2014, 2016 and 2019 Angels), Justin Verlander (2011 Tigers)
Kershaw and Verlander are the two most recent pitchers to win an MVP, and Trout was the only active player with three before his former teammate Shohei Ohtani joined him last year. All three not only have nearly unbreakable arguments for Hall of Fame inclusion; one would assume they’ll attain astronomical voting totals.
These three legacies extend far beyond hardware, which includes three Cy Young Awards apiece for Kershaw and Verlander, and Trout’s 2012 American League Rookie of the Year.
Kershaw and Verlander, along with contemporaries such as Max Scherzer, Félix Hernández and Zack Greinke, helped define a pitching-dominated era. Verlander won two World Series with the Astros, and Kershaw has two rings with the Dodgers.
Trout burst onto the scene like few players have, finishing in the top five in MVP voting in each of his first nine full seasons and often being called the best player of his generation while being compared to some of the game’s past greats.
Trout can still approach an MVP level when playing, but injuries have severely limited him over the past five years. Kershaw is chasing 3,000 career strikeouts (now just 17 away), and Verlander was in the mix for 300 wins before slowing down in recent years.
Tier 4: Veterans making moments
Jose Altuve (2017 Astros), Christian Yelich (2018 Brewers)
If it feels like you’ve watched Altuve and Yelich grow up before your very eyes, it’s because – if you’re a longtime baseball fan – you have. Both debuted at 21 and are now in their 30s with no apparent designs on riding off into the sunset.
Altuve became an All-Star in his first full season, using that as a jumping-off point for a career that has thus far included more than 2,300 hits, 700 extra-base hits and 300 stolen bases. Yelich shined in Miami before being traded to the Brewers and truly blossoming in Milwaukee, winning NL MVP in his first season there and finishing second the following year.
Yelich has been beset by health problems over the past several seasons but batted .315 in 73 games in 2024 and is on pace this year to hit at least 20 home runs for the first time since 2019, when he hit 44. His first career walk-off homer was a 10th-inning grand slam against Milwaukee on May 27, garnering him NL Player of the Week honors for the first time in six years.
Altuve, 35, is adjusting to a new position, left field, but he’s still on track for his seventh 20-homer season and could reach 2,400 career hits this year, turning up the heat on his chase for 3,000. On the same night as Yelich’s walk-off slam, Altuve had four hits, including two home runs.
Tier 3: Resurgent stars
Cody Bellinger (2019 Dodgers), Paul Goldschmidt (2022 Cardinals)
It seems like he has been around forever, but Bellinger doesn’t turn 30 until next month. It’s hard to believe that his 47-homer MVP season came six years ago, but there is a world where Bellinger remains with the Yankees long term and takes advantage of the short porch in right field for another yearlong power surge.
Will that make him an MVP candidate? It’s hard to say, but Bellinger’s combination of solid power and baserunning, and his reputation as a strong defender, could put him back into the conversation.
Goldschmidt spent much of his career battling Bellinger in the NL West when they were with the D-backs and Dodgers, respectively. Now together in the AL with the Yankees, Goldschmidt is experiencing a resurgence following a pair of relatively down seasons.
Goldschmidt also stacks up well against another player you will soon see on this list, Freddie Freeman. Despite playing one fewer season than Freeman, Goldschmidt is right behind him in some of those offensive categories and leading in home runs and walks. Their careers have been remarkably similar.
Tier 2: Veterans going strong
Mookie Betts (2018 Red Sox), Bryce Harper (2015 Nationals, 2021 Phillies), Freddie Freeman (2020 Braves)
Seeing stars such as Betts and Harper enter their 30s and the second half of their careers can make you truly appreciate all they accomplished in their 20s. For example, between 2015 and 2021, Harper led the NL in bWAR, runs, doubles, home runs, walks, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS at least once. He won a pair of Silver Slugger Awards, was a seven-time All-Star and a two-time MVP before turning 30.
Betts was stacking top 10 MVP finishes with two different teams in his 20s – seven by the time he turned 30, to be exact. From 2016 to 2023, Betts racked up 57.3 bWAR while registering 1,256 hits – 452 for extra bases – and 870 runs in 1,068 games.
So would it surprise anybody to see Betts or Harper return to MVP form? Probably not. After all, Betts finished second as recently as 2023 and Harper was sixth last year. All it takes is one magical season – and these two have had plenty of those.
Another veteran who seems to have plenty left is Freeman. His body of work probably deserves more than a lone MVP award, won for the Covid-shortened 2020 season.
Here’s one perspective on his 16-year career: As of June 14, Freeman is one of 11 players ever with at least 350 home runs, 500 doubles, 1,300 runs, 1,000 walks and 2,300 hits with a .300 lifetime batting average. The other 10 are Henry Aaron, Miguel Cabrera, Lou Gehrig, Todd Helton, Chipper Jones, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Manny Ramirez, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Decent company.
What makes Freeman’s presence on that list even more impressive is that he’s more comfortably on it now than he was when the season began. His .341 average in 2025 has pushed his career mark from .300 to .301.
Tier 1: More hardware to come
Ronald Acuña Jr. (2023 Braves), Aaron Judge (2022 and 2024 Yankees), Shohei Ohtani (2021 and 2023 Angels, 2024 Dodgers)
Because he’s been hurt during chunks of the last two seasons, it’s easy to let parts of Acuña's ridiculous 2023 season slip from memory. You will probably at least remember that Acuña became the first and only member of the 40-homer, 70-steal club.
But do you remember that in 2023 Acuña had a nearly-as-impressive combination of 149 runs scored and 217 hits? He wasn’t the first to reach those benchmarks in a season, but his company since the beginning of the 20th century only includes Chuck Klein, Kiki Cuyler, Rogers Hornsby, Lefty O’Doul and Lou Gehrig. That’s four Hall of Famers and ... Lefty O’Doul. Hey, he played on the first NL All-Star team in 1933.
It might be tough for Acuña to immediately re-enter MVP discussions with Ohtani taking so much oxygen and the Braves struggling to get going in 2025. It’s just as tough to pick against him. And if nothing else, we can remember just how insanely talented the 27-year-old outfielder was, still is, and probably will be well into the future.
There’s not much to say about the era-defining Judge and Ohtani that hasn’t already been said. If you believe our panel of experts – and your own eyes -- they’re both well on their way to winning MVP again. Ohtani could join Barry Bonds as the only players with at least four MVPs, and Judge can become the 13th to win at least three.
It may seem simply like a rite of summer now, but all this hardware will go a long way toward slotting Judge and Ohtani into their rightful spots among the game’s all-time greats when that time comes.