MIGUEL CABRERA NAMED AMERICAN LEAGUE MVP

Miguel Cabrera was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player this evening in voting conducted by the Baseball Writers Association of America. He won the award with 23 first place votes and seven second place votes to capture the award for the second consecutive year. 

Cabrera, 30, batted .348 to win his third consecutive American League batting crown. He is the first Tigers player to lead the league in hitting in three straight seasons since Ty Cobb did so from 1917-1919. Cabrera also led the league with a .442 on-base percentage and a .636 slugging percentage, while he was tied for first with 37 go-ahead RBI, second with 44 home runs, 137 RBI and 353 total bases.

Cabrera is only the second player in franchise history to win the award in back-to-back seasons, joining Hal Newhouser, who was named the league’s MVP in 1944 and 1945.

The Tigers have now featured the American League’s Most Valuable Player in each of the last three seasons, with Justin Verlander winning the award in 2011, and Cabrera following in 2012 and 2013. The Tigers are the first American League club to have back-to-back-to-back MVP’s since Roger Maris (1960-1), Mickey Mantle (1962) and Elston Howard (1963) won the MVP award in four straight seasons for the New York Yankees. Miguel Cabrera is the first American League Player to win back-to-back American League MVP Awards since Frank Thomas did so from 1993-4 with the Chicago White Sox. 

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CABRERA NAMED AMERICAN LEAGUE MVP

DETROIT – Miguel Cabrera was named the American League Most Valuable Player this evening in voting conducted by the Baseball Writers Association of America. The award marks his first career Most Valuable Player honor and Cabrera is the first Tigers position player to win the award since Hank Greenberg did so in 1940. Cabrera is the fourth position player in franchise history to win the award, joining Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer and Mickey Cochrane.

Cabrera led the American League with a .330 batting average, 44 home runs and 139 RBI to become the first player to win the Triple Crown since Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. It marked the 14th time since 1900 a player has captured the Triple Crown and Cabrera is the 12th player to accomplish the feat during that time. He is just the second player in Tigers history to win the Triple Crown, joining Ty Cobb who did so in 1909.

The batting title marked the second consecutive season Cabrera has topped the American League in hitting, becoming the first Tigers player to win back-to-back batting titles since Ty Cobb did so in three consecutive seasons from 1917-19. In addition to leading the league in batting average, home runs and RBI, he also led the league with 377 total bases, 84 extra-base hits and a .606 slugging percentage, while he finished second with 109 runs scored and 205 hits, fourth with a .393 on-base percentage and seventh with 40 doubles.

The Tigers have now featured the American League Most Valuable Player in each of the last two seasons with Justin Verlander winning the award in 2011 and Cabrera winning this season. It marks the third time in Tigers history that the club has posted back-to-back American League Most Valuable Player awards. Hal Newhouser won the award in both 1944 and 1945, while Mickey Cochrane won the award in 1934 and Hank Greenberg did so in 1935.

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