page_title: Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award
section_title: Baseball Writers' Association of America's Most Valuable Player (1931–present)
hierarchical_section_title: Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award / Baseball Writers' Association of America's Most Valuable Player (1931–present)
caption_attribution_description: Josh Donaldson
context_page_description: The Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award is an annual Major League Baseball award given to one outstanding player in the American League and one in the National League. Since 1931, it has been awarded by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The winners receive the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Memorial Baseball Award, which became the official name of the award in 1944, in honor of the first MLB commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who served from 1920 until his death on November 25, 1944.
  MVP voting takes place before the postseason, but the results are not announced until after the World Series. The BBWAA began by polling three writers in each league city in 1938, reducing that number to two per league city in 1961. The BBWAA does not offer a clear-cut definition of what "most valuable" means, instead leaving the judgment to the individual voters.
  First basemen, with 34 winners, have won the most MVPs among infielders, followed by second basemen, third basemen, and shortstops. Of the 25 pitchers who have won the award, 15 are right-handed while 10 are left-handed.
context_section_description: The BBWAA first awarded the modern MVP after the 1931 season, adopting the format the National League used to distribute its league award. One writer in each city with a team filled out a ten-place ballot, with ten points for the recipient of a first-place vote, nine for a second-place vote, and so on. In 1938, the BBWAA raised the number of voters to three per city and gave 14 points for a first-place vote. The only significant change since then occurred in 1961, when the number of voters was reduced to two per league city.
caption: Josh Donaldson won the AL MVP in 2015.
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