Cody Bellinger receives NL MVP award

The awards don’t stop coming. For the first time in his career, NL Most Valuable Player award belongs to Cody Bellinger.

“I’m glad that I had the opportunity to show off what I could do this year,” Bellinger said on MLB Network after the receiving the award.

He received 363 total points from the BBWAA, with 19 first place votes and 10 second place votes. Brewers’ Christian Yelich came up short with 317 points (10 first place, 18 second place and one third place) with Anthony Rendon coming in third place.

This award comes as the cherry on top of Bellinger’s amazing year. And if this comes as a surprise to —it shouldn’t.

Bellinger, 24, posted the best season of his young career in 2019—even better than his 2017 Rookie of the Year campaign. He showed dominance both in the batter’s box and on the field, receiving a Silver Slugger award and Gold Glove award for right field earlier this offseason.

He led the Dodgers in nearly every offensive category, finishing with a .305/.406/.629 batting line and a 9.0 WAR that led the majors. The slugger also smashed 47 home runs over the course of the regular season, which was just two homers shy of the franchise record set by Shawn Green in 2001.

His .406 on base percentage came in at third place in the NL, but his .629 slugging and 1.035 OPS each came in at second place behind Yelich. However, he was only one of six players in the MLB to finish with an OPS higher than 1.000, which is an achievement in and of itself.

He is the sixth Dodgers MVP winner since the team moved to Los Angeles, and the first since left-handed pitcher Clayton Kershaw took home the trophy in 2014.