Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and Houston Astros DH/OF Yordan Alvarez were named unanimous winners of the Most Valuable Player award in their respective leagues Thursday night.
Crow-Armstrong, 24, earned all 30 first-place votes for the National League MVP behind his monster season at the plate, on the bases and in the field. Four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani was second in the voting, and Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Brice Turang was third.
Alvarez, 29, topped Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. in the AL voting to capture his first MVP after a season in which he nearly won the triple crown.
New York Yankees ace Cam Schlittler, the unanimous AL Cy Young winner Wednesday, placed fourth in the MVP voting. With the Brewers' Jacob Misiorowski winning the NL Cy Young unanimously, it's the first season in which both MVP winners and both Cy Young winners were unanimous.
"I'm just blessed to have the ability that I do," said Crow-Armstrong, who is the 13th player in franchise history to win the award and first since Kris Bryant in 2016. "It brings me joy to be able to affect the game a lot of times on a daily basis. ... I'm feeling lucky I was able to impact the game as much as I did this year."
A fourth-year player, Crow-Armstrong, 24, hit .280 with 45 home runs and 41 stolen bases while also winning the Gold Glove and Platinum Glove awards. He also led both leagues with a 10.6 fWAR.
Crow-Armstrong began the season batting low in the lineup, often in the ninth slot. But by mid-May, he was moved to the leadoff spot and went on a tear that lasted most of the rest of the year. Cubs manager Craig Counsell said he moved Crow-Armstrong to the top of the order because the team was struggling on offense at the time and needed a spark. Crow-Armstrong took to the challenge, hitting .300 with a .398 on-base percentage while hitting first in the order. He drew 83 walks in 2026 after totaling just 29 the previous year.
Crow-Armstrong said he was thrilled that former NL MVP Andrew McCutchen made the MVP announcement on Thursday's MLB Network broadcast, calling him a player whom he "looked up to." Crow-Armstrong said he is also hopeful to inspire fans in the same way.
"I hope kids put their butts in the seats with the same sort of interest and focus that I used to," Crow-Armstrong said.
Despite winning the NL MVP, Crow-Armstrong told reporters he believed he could do better in bigger moments, such as in the postseason. He went 0-for-7 this year in the playoffs after going 5-for-27 last season.
"I'm capable but haven't gotten to the point of impacting games when it really matters," he said. "If I can take that version of myself and apply it to every aspect of the game, let's do that in October and November."
Alvarez won the AL batting title with a .316 average and finished second in home runs (42) and RBIs (106).
His unanimous MVP comes after an injury-plagued 2025 season, when he appeared in just 48 games because of a wrist fracture and a sprained ankle. He had no such bad luck this season, appearing in 158 games for the playoff-bound Astros. On Wednesday, he was also named AL Comeback Player of the Year.
"Incredible, incredible," Alvarez, speaking through an interpreter, said of his AL MVP win. "It seems like everyone else had a good feeling that I was going to win this besides me. When I heard my name, that's when the emotion came out."
Alvarez said he used his disappointing 2025 as motivation coming into this season. Asked what was different for him in 2026, Alvarez said simply, "I was healthy."
"Everyone knows what happened last year," he said. "I was anxious to get back to this season. Now, we see where that ended up, with an MVP award."
Besides winning the batting title, Alvarez drew an MLB-high 109 walks while posting a .432 on-base percentage, 46 points higher than the next-highest player.
Alvarez is the 31st player in history to win an MVP award and a rookie of the year honor. He took home the latter award in 2019 and then earned MVP votes from 2022 to 2024. He finished third in voting in 2022. He's the third Astro to win the award, joining Jeff Bagwell (1994) and Jose Altuve (2017).