Two Atlanta Braves Players Receive NL MVP Votes

Two members of the Atlanta Braves received some love from the writers in MVP voting

Two top Braves players received some MVP votes / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Two Atlanta Braves players received some recognition in National League MVP voting. Designated hitter Marcell Ozuna finished in fourth place while starting pitcher Chris Sale finished seventh in the voting. 

The Baseball Writers Association of America included the full breakdown following the announcement of the winners on Thursday night. 

Here are the final vote totals for the NL MVP pic.twitter.com/Hm9omu42yg

— BBWAA (@officialBBWAA) November 21, 2024

This is a decrease from five Braves players who received MVP votes in 2023. Ozuna is the only repeat player - which makes sense when this is Sale’s first year with the Braves. Those who received votes last season but not this year are right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr., the 2023 unanimous NL MVP who had a season-ending ACL injury; third baseman Austin Riley; first baseman Matt Olson and second baseman Ozzie Albies. 

Both Braves players received at least one second-place vote, meaning two writers felt only Shohei Ohtani was better than either of them in 2024. 

Ozuna’s breakdown is a little more evenly spread out across the rankings, receiving at least one vote in each place from second place to 10th place. Ohtani was the unanimous MVP winner, so naturally no first-place votes for anybody. 

There was a time when it seemed like Ozuna was destined to be a finalist for the award. He was competing for the NL batting Triple Crown along with Shohei Ohtani. However, he hit a massive power slump in the later months. 

In September, he slashed .277/.376/.383. That’ll cost you when discussing who is the most valuable player. 

Despite the slump, Ozuna finished with a slash line of .306/.378/.546 with 39 home runs and 104 RBIs. 

After the second-place vote, Sale wasn’t given anything higher than a fifth-place vote - though he did receive five of them. Either way, he can still add that he received MVP votes to his already star-studded Cy Young Award-winning season. 

Sale finished the season with an 18-3 record, a 2.38 ERA, 225 strikeouts and a 174 ERA+.