Goldschmidt, 35, took home his first MVP honor, receiving 22 of 30 first-place votes and eight seconds for 380 points from a Baseball Writers’ Association of America panel. Machado (seven first-place votes) was second with 291 points, and Arenado (one first-place vote) was third with 232 points.
It’s the sixth time in Goldschmidt’s 12-year career that he has finished in the top six in voting for the award. He is the fifth player to win his first career MVP at age 35 or older and the first since Dennis Eckersley in 1992.
“I think definitely as you age, you have to adapt, and that’s some of what I’ve tried to do. I’ve tried to get ahead of it,” Goldschmidt said in an interview on MLB Network. “You can’t just try to do the same thing you did the year before. But yeah, kind of the stigma that as you get older, you’re going to keep getting worse. I mean, nobody likes that. They don’t like being told you can’t do something, so it’s definitely motivation.”
Goldschmidt led the NL in slugging (.578) and OPS (.981) while compiling the highest OPS-plus (180) of his career. Along with Arenado, he helped lead the Cardinals to an NL Central Division title.
For the season, he hit .317 with 35 home runs and 115 RBIs, ranking third in the NL in batting average, fifth in home runs and second in RBIs. Goldschmidt’s sabermetric stats also ranked high, as he ranked first in WOBA (weighted on-base average), first in WRC+ (weighted runs created plus) and third in ISO (isolated power). He also ranked second in WAR among position players, just behind Arenado.
Goldschmidt’s MVP was fueled by his first five months of the season, when he hit .332 with an OPS over 1.000. He slumped some in September, hitting just .245 with two home runs. He also went 0-for-7 in the Cardinals’ wild-card loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Balloting was conducted before the postseason.
“Whether I won this or not, it was going to be a great year,” Goldschmidt said. “This was my best year and the most fun I had, playing with Nolan and Albert [Pujols] and so many guys we had. So, it was just incredible.”
Goldschmidt, a seven-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner, was twice runner-up for NL MVP, in 2013 and 2015, and finished third in 2017. He was sixth last season.
“I never felt like I was missing something,” he said. “I’ve had some great years.”
Arenado, 31, finished in the top six in voting for the fifth time in his career after hitting .293 with 30 home runs. He also won his 10th consecutive Gold Glove award.
Machado, 30, carried the Padres to a wild-card berth after hitting 32 home runs while compiling a .898 OPS. With star shortstop Fernando Tatis missing the entire season due to an injury and then a suspension for PED use, and with newcomer Juan Soto struggling, Machado was the main source of offensive production for San Diego. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, he accounted for 20% of his team’s home runs, third among NL players, while recording the highest percentage of his team’s extra-base hits.
It’s Machado’s fourth time finishing in the top five in MVP voting, including twice with the Baltimore Orioles and now twice with the Padres.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
The Penguins’ captain tied Hall of Famer Joe Sakic at 1,641 points with an assist on Bryan Rust‘s first-period goal. Crosby then moved past Sakic with an assist on Drew O’Connor‘s sixth goal of the season later in the period as the Penguins raced to a 4-1 advantage.
Crosby’s 12th goal 5:42 into the second put the Penguins up 5-1, providing some welcome wiggle room for a team that has struggled to hold multiple-goal leads this season.
The next name ahead of Crosby on the career scoring list is none other than Penguins icon Mario Lemieux, who had 1,723 points.
“I’m running out of superlatives [about Crosby],” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan told reporters after the game. “What he’s accomplishing, first of all, his body of work in the league, his legacy that has been built to this point, speaks for itself. He’s the consummate pro. He just represents our sport, the league, the Pittsburgh Penguins in such a great way.
“He just carries himself with so much grace and humility and integrity. And he’s a fierce competitor on the ice.”
Rust also had a goal and two assists for Pittsburgh, which snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the Oilers for the first time since Dec. 20, 2019.
“For us, that was our goal — to be on our toes, be all over them, be on top of them, because they’re very fast, a skilled team,” Rust told reporters after the game. “I think just a result of that was us being able to get some offense.”
McDavid finished with three assists. Leon Draisaitl scored twice to boost his season total to an NHL-best 31, but the Penguins beat Stuart Skinner four times in the first 14 minutes. Skinner settled down to finish with 21 saves but it wasn’t enough as the Penguins ended Edmonton’s four-game winning streak.
TAKEAWAYS
Oilers: Their attention to detail in the first period was shaky. Though Skinner wasn’t at his best, the Penguins also had little trouble generating chances.
Penguins: Pittsburgh remains a work in progress at midseason but showed it can compete with the league’s best.
UP NEXT
Edmonton finishes a four-game trip at Chicago on Saturday. The Penguins continue a five-game homestand Saturday against Ottawa.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Wild have added defensemen Jonas Brodin and Brock Faber to their list of key injured players, leaving them out of the lineup for their game against Colorado on Thursday night.
Brodin’s status is day to day. He has a lower-body injury from blocking a shot late in the 6-4 win over St. Louis on Tuesday night. Wild coach John Hynes had no update after the team’s morning skate on Thursday on the timetable for the return of Faber, who has an upper-body injury from an elbow he took from Blues forward Jake Neighbours at the end of his first shift.
The Wild already were missing captain Jared Spurgeon (lower body), who is expected to be out for another week or two after taking a slew foot from Nashville forward Zachary L’Heureux in their game on Dec. 31. That leaves Minnesota without three of its top four defensemen. Jake Middleton just returned from a 10-game absence because of an upper-body injury.
The Wild also have been without star left wing Kirill Kaprizov (lower body), who missed his seventh straight game on Thursday. Kaprizov, who is tied for fourth in the NHL with 23 goals and ninth in the league with 50 points, has skated on the last two days and could return soon.
The Columbus Blue Jackets placed forward Sean Monahan on injured reserve Thursday because of an upper body injury sustained in the 4-3 shootout win at Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
Adam Fantilli is expected to move up to center the top line when the Blue Jackets host the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
“Guys have watched how [Monahan] conducts himself, and hopefully they try to do the exact same thing,” coach Dean Evason said Thursday. “Our bench is calm in large part because of him up front and [defenseman Zach Werenski] on the back end. They’re both very calming influence players, but we have other guys that do that as well.
“But if the guys that are playing in tonight’s hockey game have learned anything from ‘Monny,’ it’s that he’s even-keeled. He doesn’t get too high, too low, all those clichés. He just goes about his business. We expect our team to do that here tonight.”
In a corresponding move, the Blue Jackets added rookie forward Owen Sillinger on an emergency recall from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters.
Monahan, 30, has 41 points (14 goals, 27 assists), 14 penalty minutes and a plus-17 rating in 41 games this season. He ranks second on the team in plus/minus rating and third in goals, assists and points.
He has 579 career points (258 goals, 321 assists) in 805 games with the Calgary Flames (2013-22), Montreal Canadiens (2022-24), Winnipeg Jets (2024) and Blue Jackets, who signed him as a free agent in July. The Flames selected him sixth overall in the 2013 NHL draft.
Sillinger, 27, is on a one-year, two-way NHL/AHL contract with the Blue Jackets. He has eight goals and 17 assists with 18 penalty minutes in 34 games with Cleveland this season.
