Every MLB MVP winner since 2000 ranked by WAR

While the NL and AL MVP awards are seen as the crown jewels of achievements in MLB, the amount of statistical production from each winner greatly varies.

When I was scrolling through Baseball Reference this morning getting caught up on the box scores from Friday, one statistic in particular stuck out to me as I was looking through the main stats page for the Chicago Cubs.

While it’s no secret that Pete Crow-Armstrong is putting together a very special season, it was hard not to notice his WAR standing at 7.3 with 45 games still remaining in the season. On top of being an incredible season total that has been good enough to win the MVP award, it also matches the total of the Cubs’ last MVP winner – Kris Bryant in 2016.

Though it certainly doesn’t line up to where the league’s leader in WAR wins the MVP award, the preeminent sabermetric stat continues to play a significant role in how voters decide their rankings at the end of the season.

Which got me to start thinking about just how much of a difference we have seen in the production by league MVPs in some years compared to others – especially when turning the clock back a quarter-century to a game where traditional counting stats were still the primary factor in determining who won awards.

As someone who grew up getting to watch Barry Bonds’ incredible four-season stretch with the San Francisco Giants in the early 2000’s, I wanted to see which league MVPs had come close to equaling Bonds’ production, as well as the others that perhaps should have just been named to the All-Star team.

Below is a list/ranking of the 52 MVP winners the league has seen since the 2000 season based on their season-end bWAR total in their MVP season. Unsurprisingly, it’s the 73-home run season from Bonds in 2001 to lead the pack, while Justin Morneau’s 2006 MVP campaign with the Minnesota Twins stands out as the lowest single-season WAR for an MVP winner since the dawn of the new millennium in a 162-game season.

1. 2001 Barry Bonds: 11.9 WAR
2. 2002 Barry Bonds: 11.7 WAR
3. 2024 Aaron Judge: 10.9 WAR
4. 2022 Aaron Judge: 10.8 WAR
5. 2018 Mookie Betts: 10.7 WAR
6. 2004 Barry Bonds: 10.6 WAR
7. 2016 Mike Trout: 10.4 WAR
8. 2023 Shohei Ohtani: 9.9 WAR
9. 2025 Aaron Judge: 9.7 WAR
10. 2015 Bryce Harper: 9.7 WAR
11. 2009 Albert Pujols: 9.7 WAR
12. 2007 Alex Rodriguez: 9.4 WAR
13. 2005 Alex Rodriguez: 9.4 WAR
14. 2008 Albert Pujols: 9.2 WAR
15. 2003 Barry Bonds: 9.2 WAR
16. 2024 Shohei Ohtani: 9.0 WAR
17. 2021 Shohei Ohtani: 9.0 WAR
18. 2019 Cody Bellinger: 8.7 WAR
19. 2010 Josh Hamilton: 8.7 WAR
20. 2011 Justin Verlander: 8.6 WAR
21. 2023 Ronald Acuña Jr.: 8.4 WAR
22. 2005 Albert Pujols: 8.4 WAR
23. 2003 Alex Rodriguez: 8.4 WAR
24. 2014 Clayton Kershaw: 8.2 WAR
25. 2017 Jose Altuve: 8.1 WAR
26. 2017 Giancarlo Stanton: 8.1 WAR
27. 2019 Mike Trout: 7.9 WAR
28. 2013 Andrew McCutchen: 7.8 WAR
29. 2009 Joe Mauer: 7.8 WAR
30. 2000 Jason Giambi: 7.8 WAR
31. 2025 Shohei Ohtani: 7.7 WAR
32. 2022 Paul Goldschmidt: 7.7 WAR
33. 2014 Mike Trout: 7.7 WAR
34. 2011 Ryan Braun: 7.7 WAR
35. 2001 Ichiro Suzuki: 7.7 WAR
36. 2012 Buster Posey: 7.6 WAR
37. 2013 Miguel Cabrera: 7.5 WAR
38. 2015 Josh Donaldson: 7.4 WAR
39. 2018 Christian Yelich: 7.3 WAR
40. 2016 Kris Bryant: 7.3 WAR
41. 2000 Jeff Kent: 7.2 WAR
42. 2012 Miguel Cabrera: 7.1 WAR
43. 2010 Joey Votto: 7.0 WAR
44. 2008 Dustin Pedroia: 6.9 WAR
45. 2007 Jimmy Rollins: 6.1 WAR
46. 2021 Bryce Harper: 5.9 WAR
47. 2002 Miguel Tejada: 5.7 WAR
48. 2004 Vladimir Guerrero: 5.6 WAR
49. 2006 Ryan Howard: 5.2 WAR
50. 2006 Justin Morneau: 4.3 WAR
51. 2020 Freddie Freeman: 3.3 WAR
52. 2020 José Abreu: 2.7 WAR