
Jose Abreu had another quietly great season and wins the AL Outstanding Player Award
The White Sox first baseman, Jose Abreu, has been an underrated star in the American League. Since entering the MLB in 2014 with the White Sox, he is a career .294 hitter, slugging .520, and .870 OPS. He has been selected as an All-Star three times out of seven years, but he arguably should have a couple more.
Abreu also won Rookie of the Year, two Silver Slugger Awards, and entered the top five MVP conversation just once. Now, he can add the Players Choice AL Outstanding Player Award to his resume.
In 2020, he hit .317, .987 OPS, and 19 home runs. Abreu led the league with a .617 slugging percentage, 60 RBIs, and 76 hits. His 2020 offensive stats have done the talking and he was one of the most dangerous this season. Abreu led a group of very young and talented White Sox players who finished second in the AL Central behind the Twins.
His glovework is not as good as Freeman’s but Abreu’s offense is plenty to warrant him the award. Abreu’s offense made him the first AL player to lead the league in RBIs in back to back season since David Ortiz in 2005-2006. Abreu had a shopping 123 RBIs in 2019.
Abreu also became the fourth player in AL history to lead the Junior Circuit in hits and RBIs in a season. He joins an impressive group including Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski, and Lou Gehrig. Abreu is now 33-years-old, but he has not slowed down. If anything, he is aging like fine wine. He is one of my favorites for AL MVP this season which will be announced in November.
Abreu beat out the impressive stat lines of DJ LeMahieu and Mike Trout.
Now I will introduce the AL and NL Outstanding Pitchers of 2020.