Philly Front Office

Disclaimer: I am not 100 years old and I did not see Yogi Berra play. Neither did you.

Yogi Berra is a deserving Hall of Famer and one of the best catchers to ever play. His 59.6 WAR is 5th all time for the position. He won 10 World Series trophies and played for the championship 14 times in 17 legitimate seasons. That part is not in question. The individual season honors though, those we need to dive into. How is he tied for 2nd most MVPs of all time?

Friday, July 25 at 7:05p – Taijuan Walker vs Will Warren (R)
Saturday, July 26 at 1:05p – Ranger Suarez vs Marcus Stroman (R)
Sunday, July 27 at 1:35p -Zack Wheeler vs Carlos Rodon (L)

at Yankee Stadium, New York, NY

For the period of 1950 through 1956 the LOWEST Yogi Berra finished in MVP voting was 4th. During that time, he won the award 3 times. That’s pretty incredible. Also in that time, he hit over .300 just twice and never led the league in anything. Ok, he was a catcher, that’s understandable, he probably only played about 100 games per season, right? Well, it was more like 145. Let’s break down these 6 seasons and show who was more deserving of the honors.

(I know WAR was not a thing then, but it is still pretty telling of who the most complete players of the year were)

1950 (3rd place): This was Berra’s best season but he only finished 3rd in MVP voting behind teammate Phil Rizzuto. If Berra were to have won the award in any season it should have been this one with his .322 average, .915 OPS, 124 RBI, and 28 HRs. The award probably should have gone to Larry Doby of Cleveland though with his league leading .986 OPS and 6.7 WAR in only 142 games.

1951 (1st): Berra’s first MVP came with down stats across the board from 1950 with a .292 average, 5.3 WAR, and a sub .850 OPS. Ted Williams that year led the league in WAR, walks, OBP, slugging, and OPS while chipping in 30 HRs and 126 RBI. He finished 13th!

1952 (4th): .273 avg, .835 OPS, 5.8 WAR. Bobby Shantz took the award with a 9.4 WAR as a pitcher, but Larry Doby led position players in WAR with 7. Despite leading the league in most hitting categories, he finished 12th.

1953 (2nd): Numbers were down across the AL with Al Rosen of Cleveland running away with the MVP award and coming .001 from winning the Triple Crown. Berra had less than half the WAR of Rosen and finished 2nd despite a season of .296 average, .886 OPS and 27 homers. The NL that year was an arms race with 4 players finishing with a WAR of 8+ and 11 with a .900+ OPS. Roy Campanella won with a .312 avg, 41 HRs, and 142 RBI.

1954: (1st): Berra wins his 2nd MVP with numbers similar to his runner up 1953 season. His 5.3 WAR is almost 3 points lower than that of Minnie Minoso and 2.2 points lower than Ted Williams despite him playing in 36 less games. Both clearly deserved the award over Berra but finished 4th and 7th.

Phillies Series Preview: Teddy Ballgame

1955 (1st): This is Berras’s worst season of the stretch where he only racks up 4.5 WAR in a full slate of games. His .272 avg. and .819 OPS also rank as a period low. Berra gets the award despite MONSTER seasons from his teammate Mickey Mantle and Al Kaline of the Tigers. Mantle led the league in HRs with 37 and WAR with more than double that of Berra at 9.5; Kaline was at 8.2. Kaline led the league in hitting at .340, 68 points higher than Berra. Teddy Ballgame also put up his usual mastery but in only 98 games (6.9 WAR, 28 HRs, .356 avg, 1.200 OPS). I am no historian, but this looks like one of the worst MVP votes in history. Berra should have finished closer to 10th.

1956 (2nd): This was much more of a vintage Bera season with 6.2 WAR, 30 HRs, and hitting near .300. Kaline finished 3rd that year despite better all around numbers than Berra. There was no debating the MVP though. Mickey Mantle put up a season for the ages, winning the triple crown with a .353 average, 52 HRs, and 130 RBI. He led the league in WAR at 11.3, runs with 132, and OPS with 1.169

Let’s compare these MVP seasons to some other catchers who have won MVP:

Johnny Bench (1970): Led the league in WAR (7.4), HRs (45), and RBI (148)

Johnny Bench (1972): Led the league in HRs (40) and RBI (125) while having his best individual WAR season (8.7)

Joe Mauer (2009): A monster season where he led the league in average (.365), OBP (.444), slugging (.587), and OPS+ of 171

Buster Posey (2012): Led the league in WAR (7.6), batting average (.336), and OPS+ (171) while playing 148 games

Berra wasn’t the only catcher winning MVPs then either. Roy Campanella won the award in the National League for 1951, 1953, and 1955. Similarly, Campanella didn’t lead the league in anything but RBIs one time (142 in 1953). However, he still finished near the top of the leaderboard in all 3 seasons in average, HRs, slugging, OPS, and OPS+. He was also a known savant behind the plate, throwing out a ridiculous 69% of base runners in 1951. Guys like Robin Roberts and Willie Mays may have been slightly more deserving, but that doesn’t mean Campenella wasn’t a defensible pick each year.

Phillies Series Preview: Willie Mays Only Had How Many MVPs???

Of course, there’s one big thing I missed. If you are a Yankee, you get the benefit of the doubt apparently:

Elston Howard in 1963 won the MVP award going away despite good but not great numbers all around. There was not a clear-cut favorite that season for MVP, but any number of guys had better seasons than Howard. He just happened to lead the Yankees in all statistical categories that season. Just because you are the MVP of the Yankees doesn’t mean you should be MVP of the league.

Thurmon Munson in 1976 beat out George Brett, Hal McRae, and Rod Carew despite having pedestrian numbers all around. He had far superior seasons in 1973 and 1975, but went basically unnoticed by the voters.

I should say, both Howard and Munson have pretty sad stories attached to them, so it is at least nice in retrospect that each won the MVP even with the numbers.

In the end, Berra finishes with 3 MVP awards. Other than Barry Bonds with 7, that’s tied for the most all time. Ridiculous. He had a great career and was a terrific HR hitter for a catcher, but he is otherwise just a great player, not someone who should be considered in the inner circle of greatness with other 3x winners Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, and Joe DiMaggio (and Campanella). Hell, Ted Williams and Willie Mays only have 2!

All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference

Also, apparently there is a catchers appreciation website out there called CatchersHome.com