MVP EXTRA CREDIT (Catchers: Part 2)
- Paul Semendinger
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Paul Semendinger
January 2026
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NOTE - This article was published by the IBWAA in their daily baseball newsletter, Here's The Pitch, on January 9, 2026
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In my analysis of MVP voting, I discovered that catchers often receive extra credit. It seems that when catchers have good-to-great years, they earn extra-credit votes. That is especially true if the catcher is on a pennant-winning team - even if he had teammates who had superior statistical seasons. The trend to award catchers “extra-credit” has occurred almost as long as the MVP has been awarded.
This article is Part 2 of 2 (1980-2025) examining catchers and the MVP Vote:
1982
In the history of the awarding of the MVP Award, the National League winner should have been a catcher, as was not. In 1982, Gary Carter of the Expos led the N.L. in WAR (8.6) and was significantly better than the winner, Dale Murphy (6.1).
Looking at their statistics:
Carter: .293/29/97
Murphy: .281/36/109.
It seems as though the Braves winning the N.L. West (the Expos were a third-place team) and the fact that Dale Murphy led the league in games and runs batted in tilted the scales in his favor.
This was the first time that a catcher who deserved the award was not recognized.
1982-1998
The late 20th century was a period that did not see catchers performing at the top of the game in regard to overall performance, and neither did catchers receive much, if any, extra-credit.
Mike Piazza, a great catcher in this era, received MVP votes in eight seasons and was the runner-up twice (1996 and 1997) along with some other top finishes:
1994 - 6th place in MVP, 13th in WAR
1995 - 4th place in MVP, 5th place in WAR
1996 - 2nd place in MVP, 14th place in WAR
1997 - 2nd place in MVP, 4th place in WAR.
While he didn’t win the award, he did seem to earn extra-credit.
Gary Carter should have won the MVP in 1982. He received MVP votes in six seasons from 1980 on. Three times, he was a Top 10 finisher:
1981 - 6th place in MVP, 8th in WAR
1985 - 6th place in MVP, 6th in WAR
1986 - 3rd place in MVP, 14th in WAR
It seems he was accurately awarded in 1981 and 1985 and received some extra credit for being a catcher on the pennant-winning Mets in 1986.
Carlton Fisk did not receive much MVP consideration from 1980 on receiving votes in only three seasons. In 1983, his vote total (3rd place) defied his actual performance (15th best WAR).
1999
Maybe the writers wished to revert back to an old habit as a new century was dawning.
Ivan Rodriguez, who had the 6th best WAR in the American League, won the MVP. The position player with the highest WAR in 1999 was Derek Jeter (8.0). Pedro Martinez (9.8) led the league in WAR.
2009
The American league MVP was Joe Mauer who put up a nice season: .365/28/96. He led the league in batting, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. Mauer was third in WAR (second among position players) behind Zack Greinke (10.8) and Ben Zobrist (8.6).
Zobrist batted .297/27/91.
Awarding the MVP to Mauer was the correct decision.
2012
It is possible that more and more writers began to embrace some of the newer statistics that they selected more and more worthy candidates for MVP, at least in this exercise, if we’re looking at catchers.
In 2012, Buster Posey led the National League in WAR as he hit .336/24/103 with 7.6 WAR. His .336 led the N.L. Posey was correctly named the MVP.
2025
Aaron Judge won the MVP, but catcher Cal Raleigh had an impressive season of his own. Judge dominated most statistical categories, including WAR toping Raleigh convincingly 9.7 to 7.4. Raleigh, who led the American League in homers and runs batted in, was second in WAR and in the MVP voting.
Conclusion
There still seems to be a tendency of voters to look to the “field general,” the catcher, as a player deserving of the MVP, though that lessened over the last many decades. When the final votes are calculated, in recent years, the extra-credit catchers used to receive much more often has lessened.
A follow-up study looking at the highest ranked catcher in MVP voting would be interesting to see to note if that player received votes primarily due to his position.
This author is also interested to see how often the voters’ MVP choices were correct if one were look back just at WAR totals.
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Dr. Paul Semendinger’s newest book, West Point at Gettysburg (Part 1), is earning outstanding reviews. An award-winning author, Paul is looking forward to Christmas when he will be able to enjoy lots of time with his family.
