The Least Valuable Player Award Goes To …

When the World Series ends and a team is crowned the champion of baseball, one individual performance is highlighted for the MVP honors. We might remember the MVPs and we certainly remember the moments when the series was decided, but the worst performances seem to fade away in time. That said, I looked back at the five most recent World Series — but instead of crowning the traditional MVP, I wanted to revisit them and find the one Least Valuable Player out of the group.

I decided to analyze players that made serious contributions to their team during the World Series, which means I only looked at pitchers that made at least two appearances and batters that played in more than half of the games. This disqualified players who had a singular bad performance, game or inning from being called “least valuable.”

I weighed my decision heavily on the players’ previous contributions to the season as well as the amount of playing time they had — the more they played, the more consideration they received. These players were heavily relied on to help carry their teams to victory, were given plenty of opportunities to do so and did not live up to the expectations. 

2015 World Series — Kansas City Royals (4) vs. New York Mets (1)

Mets RHP Jeurys Familia

For a small stretch of time, RHP Jeurys Familia was one of the most well-known and effective closers in the game. In 2015, he finished the regular season with 43 saves, 86 strikeouts and a shiny 1.85 ERA in 78 innings pitched. He carried that momentum into the postseason by not allowing a single run and converting on every save opportunity to help push his team past the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, and into the World Series. But on the biggest stage, he was unable to convert in any meaningful situations. He was given three potential save opportunities and failed to take advantage of each of them. It’s not fair to put all the blame on him, especially given the context of each situation, but you expect your closer to be someone you can rely on when the time comes, and he was anything but that in this series. 

2016 World Series — Chicago Cubs (4) vs. Cleveland Indians (3)

Cubs IF Javier Báez

This is the most difficult of the bunch by far. Easily the best series during this span, this is a true example of how it’s never just one player or manager that decides a game. Although IF Javier Báez had a heroic solo shot in Game 7, he committed two errors before the home run and struck out twice after that, including one in the top of the ninth. He finished the series with 13 strikeouts in 30 at-bats (43%), and his lone RBI and run came on that homerun. Báez was coming off his breakout regular season and co-MVP honors in the NLCS, and boy did he play confident despite his struggles, but he was still the most consistent Least Valuable Player on that field.

2017 World Series — Houston Astros (4) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (3)

Dodgers SP Yu Darvish

Yes, we all know the Houston Astros cheated in 2017; but regardless of that fact, it’s impossible to overlook Darvish for this award. The Dodgers acquired SP Yu Darvish with the hopes of having acquired a solid postseason pitcher. Unfortunately, they got just the opposite, as he posted a 21.60 ERA over two starts in 3.1 innings pitched. In the two games he started — Games 3 and 7 — he was credited with the loss and failed to record a single punch out. It hurts to give him this award, but when you put up that kind of stat line on the biggest stage, you just have to deal with the heat.

2018 World Series – Boston Red Sox (4) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (1)

Dodgers OF Cody Bellinger

There were scandal rumors swirling around this loss as well, but the Dodgers were completely outmatched this year. The LA bullpen deserves an honorary mention for how bad the Boston batting order beat them up, but it was the lack of offense that was alarming. Midseason acquisition 3B Manny Machado was certainly not impressive, but OF Cody Bellinger went from looking like future top-talent, which he eventually became, to a nobody really quickly. He appeared in all five games and in 16 at-bats he mustered one hit, struck out six times and was even caught stealing. None of this series was fun for Dodgers fans to watch, and I’m sure Bellinger’s collapse made it that much harder to swallow. 

2019 World Series — Washington Nationals (4) vs. Houston Astros (2)

Astros SP Justin Verlander

In this series, the Trashtros offense wasn’t really an issue. They totaled 68 hits, which is the most by any team in this window, and knocked in 30 runs. The inconsistencies really came from some streaky pitching by both the starters and relievers. The most crushing performance was from the 2019 Cy Young award winner — SP Justin Verlander — who struck out 300 batters, won 21 games and posted a 2.58 ERA in the regular season. After the bullpen imploded in both of his outings, Verlander was handed two losses. His inability to hold and pass off a lead to his bullpen is a big reason I put him here.

2020 World Series — Los Angeles Dodgers (4) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (2)

Rays SP Tyler Glasnow

The cool pick here would be manager Kevin Cash for pulling SP Blake Snell for RHP Nick Anderson in the 6th inning of Game 6. But I’m not cool — ask anyone I went to school with. Instead, I’m going to continue to pick on the No. 2 starters, but this one was much easier. SP Tyler Glasnow had absolutely nothing working for him against the Dodgers’ lineup, which made his team and subsequent pitchers that followed him play from a hole very early in each game. Games 1 and 5, which were Glasnow’s starts, were easy wins for Los Angeles, paving the way for their first World Series title in decades.

The decision of a series in baseball can never really be chalked up to the performance of one player. Make no mistake, I’m not calling these players “bad,” or saying that they’re solely responsible for their team losing the Fall Classic. They simply hurt their teams’ chances more than they helped. The beautiful thing about baseball is that, for the most part, there’s always an opportunity to redeem yourself. Some of these players have, and some haven’t, but that’s just the nature of the game.

Cover photo courtesy of Eric Gay/AP Photo