Hernandez, Cano among top 10 in AL MVP vote

Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels won the American League’s Most Valuable Player award unanimously Thursday, collecting all 30-place votes, and two Mariners finished in the top 10. Trout won with 420 points to 229 for Victor Martinez of the Tigers, with Robinson Cano fifth with 124 and Felix Hernandez 10th with 48. Trout is the first unanimous MVP since Ken Griffey Jr. of the Mariners in 1997.

Cano received one second and one third-place vote while Hernandez drew two second-place votes and one third-place nod from the Baseball Writers Association of America.

The BWAA placed Hernandez ahead of Cleveland’s Corey Kluber in Most Valuable Player voting, 48-45, after making Hernandez a 169-159 loser in Cy Young voting, announced Wednesday. The voters in each category are different.

Seattle third baseman Kyle Seager received one 10th-place vote, the third Mariner to place in the top 20 in the voting.

Trout, who finished second in the voting in each of his first two seasons, is, at 23, the youngest player to become a unanimous MVP. He hit .287 with 36 home runs and 111 RBIs and led the AL with 115 runs scored.

In the first year of a 10-year, $240 million contract, second baseman Cano hit .314 with 14 home runs and 82 RBIs. He had an OPS of .836 and represented the Mariners in the All-Star Game. Cano finished fifth in the voting in 2013 while a member of the New York Yankees.

Hernandez went 15-6 and led the AL in a number of pitching categories, including ERA. His 2.14 was the lowest in franchise history and the lowest by an AL pitcher since Pedro Martinez at 1.73 in 2000.

A first-time All-Star, Seager hit .268 with 25 home runs 96 RBIs. He also won his first AL Gold Glove award.

Cano’s fifth-place finish is the highest by a Mariner since Ichiro came in ninth in 2009 voting.

This is the first year since 2001 that Seattle placed two players in the top 10 of the MVP vote. That year, Ichiro won and second baseman Bret Boone finished second.