Bryce Harper wins NL MVP award; Josh Donaldson is named AL winner

Bryce Harper began this season with one personal goal, and it had nothing to do with homers, RBIs or awards. "All I wanted to do,'' he said, "was stay healthy and stay on the field every day."

Harper did that, and a lot more. The Washington slugger put behind his injury-plagued past and put up huge numbers, becoming the youngest unanimous MVP winner in baseball history when he captured the NL honor yesterday.

Toronto third baseman Josh Donaldson was named AL MVP after helping the Blue Jays reach the postseason for the first time since 1993.

Harper, who turned 23 on Oct. 16, got all 30 first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and was the first MVP in either league from a non-playoff team since Albert Pujols with St. Louis in 2008.

"Very excited, very humbled," the outfielder said.

Injuries cost Harper large chunks of the 2013 and 2014 seasons, but he played 153 games this year, avoided the disabled list and kept climbing the stat charts. He hit .330 with 42 home runs and 99 RBIs and led the majors with a .649 slugging percentage and a .460 on-base average.

He went into the final day of the regular season with a chance to win the NL batting title -- Miami's Dee Gordon edged him -- and scored a league-leading 118 runs.

"Every team that we played circled his name and said, 'This guy's not going to beat us.' And with that said, he beat a lot of teams," Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said. "As we said at this time last year, I thought that Harp was just scratching the surface of what he can be."

Harper was the first player from a Washington franchise to win an MVP since the BBWAA awards began in 1931. No one on the original or expansion Senators or Nationals had done it. He was the fourth-youngest player overall to win an MVP, with Stan Musial, Johnny Bench and Vida Blue also 22 but not quite as old.

Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt finished second and Reds first baseman Joey Votto was third. Yoenis Cespedes, acquired by the Mets from Detroit at the July 31 trade deadline, came in 13th.

Donaldson received 23 first-place votes. Angels outfielder Mike Trout, who won the award last year, got the other first-place votes and finished second for the third time. Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain was third.

Said Donaldson, "You know going into a season that if you're ultimately going to win an MVP, you've got to put up better numbers than Mike."

Donaldson led the AL with 123 RBIs and topped the majors by scoring 122 runs. He hit 41 home runs and batted .297.