Pittsburgh Pirates: Ranking the Team’s Eight MVP Seasons

The Pittsburgh Pirates have had eight MVP winners in their history. But not all MVPs are as good as the next. Out of the eight seasons, who had the best?

The Most Valuable Player award is one of the most highly sought after awards not just in baseball, but in any sport. The award is given to who the voters think is the best player that year. In the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates, they have had eight different MVP seasons from seven different players.

But not every MVP is as good as the others. Sometimes, when looking back at it, MVP awards were majorly affected by what stats and factors were more valuable at the time.

Obviously, batting average in 1960 meant way more than it does in 2020. Plus, voters in seasons past might look at factors that are mostly out of a player’s control like RBIs, as a player can’t control how many times they step to the plate with runners on. They may also value something such as team record, even though a player can not single handily win games, to sway their vote.

With how different eras can be, we will be using era adjusted stats like wRC+ and OPS+ like we did with our top five rankings at each position. These give us a clearer picture of how good they were for the time. So, with that out of the way, let’s get into number seven!