Yordan Alvarez and Pete Crow-Armstrong Win Unanimous MVP Awards: Where Both Belong in 2027 Fantasy Baseball Drafts

The 2026 MVP awards were never in doubt, and the voting showed it. Houston Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez won the American League MVP with every first-place vote, and Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong swept all 30 first-place votes in the National League. Both were announced Thursday night, and with the Cy Young awards also going unanimously this week, it marks the first time that all four of baseball's top individual honors were decided without a dissenting first-place ballot. For fantasy managers already thinking about 2027, the question is not whether these two are elite, but how early to take them.

The seasons that won it

Alvarez finished just short of a Triple Crown and received 420 total points in the Baseball Writers' Association of America voting. Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero finished second. Crow-Armstrong became the seventh player in MLB history to reach 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a season, and the first Cub to do it. Shohei Ohtani finished second in the NL.

Alvarez also added 34 doubles and posted a 190 OPS+. Crow-Armstrong stole 41 bases, played all 162 games, chipped in 31 doubles and eight triples, and paired his offense with Gold Glove defense in center field. His win comes exactly 10 years after Kris Bryant won the award for the Cubs.

Pete Crow-Armstrong: a first-round pick, now near the top

The case for Crow-Armstrong in 2027 drafts is simple: he contributes in all five standard roto categories, and he does it at elite levels in the two scarcest ones, home runs and stolen bases. A 40-40 player is a category-balancing machine, letting fantasy managers draft pitching or high-average hitters later without worrying about speed.

The questions are about repeatability. Crow-Armstrong's power took a major step forward in 2026, and a .280 average is higher than many projection systems would have forecast for him entering the season. Some regression in batting average is a reasonable expectation. But even a version of Crow-Armstrong who hits .260 with 35 homers and 35 steals is a first-round fantasy player, and his defense guarantees he plays every day, which is its own fantasy asset. Durability counts: he played every game this year.

Draft-day verdict: Crow-Armstrong belongs in the top five overall in 2027 roto drafts and the top 10 in points leagues, where steals are worth less. Do not let a regression worry push him past the middle of the first round.

Yordan Alvarez: elite bat, limited flexibility

Alvarez's season ranks among the best of his career, and his on-base skills make him particularly valuable in OBP leagues and points formats. Few hitters combine his power with a walk rate and batting average this strong.

The limitation is positional. Alvarez is a designated hitter, which in most fantasy formats means he fills only a utility slot. That reduces roster flexibility, and it matters most in shallow leagues where managers want positional eligibility to plug holes. His health history is the other factor. A full, healthy Alvarez season is an MVP season; the risk is missed time.

He also contributes little speed, so managers who draft him early need to find steals elsewhere. That is one reason Alvarez and Crow-Armstrong pair so well on the same fantasy roster if a manager can land both: one balances what the other lacks.

Draft-day verdict: Alvarez is a late first-round pick in roto, moving higher in OBP and points leagues. Utility-only eligibility keeps him a notch below the five-category monsters.

The runners-up matter too

Junior Caminero's runner-up finish in the AL is a signal that the young Rays slugger is now firmly in the early-round tier, and he brings positional eligibility at third base that Alvarez does not. Ohtani finishing second in the NL is no surprise; his two-way value remains format-dependent, and leagues that count him as both a hitter and a pitcher will value him far above where traditional leagues place him.

Betting and futures angle

MVP futures for 2027 will open with both winners near the top of the board, as defending MVPs always do. The challenge for bettors is that repeat winners are rare outside of the very best players in the sport. Crow-Armstrong's combination of power, speed and defense gives him a broad case built on WAR that voters reward, while Alvarez's case depends on his bat alone and on staying healthy. If either price looks short when markets open, the field is usually the better value this far out.

Verdexed's MLB predictions return with the 2027 season at /mlb/predictions.

What to do now

Dynasty managers: Crow-Armstrong is a top-five dynasty asset given his age and athleticism. If you own him, there is no price worth selling at. Alvarez is a win-now piece; contending dynasty teams should hold, and rebuilding teams could sell to a contender at peak value.

Redraft planning: Pencil in Crow-Armstrong in the top five and Alvarez in the back half of the first round. The rest of the offseason, especially where Alvarez's Astros and the Cubs add around them, will determine whether their run and RBI totals hold.