2025 New Jersey Athletics MVPThis season NJ was rightfully restored to the top of the PL North, however once again making it to the AFBL Championship series proved a bridge too far. An epic 7 game series against divisional rivals Pennsylvania left the Athletics' fans in tears as the Railroaders took the PL championship and went on to triumph in the big series.
Team MVP, wow what a decision. After eight straight seasons of different players winning the award it came down to a straight shootout between last season's winner, Ken Calhoun and the 2023 recipient Mike Whitney.
For Whitney he continued to impress, he added a third straight All Star appearance, tied the NJ record for wins in a season (23), had 20 quality starts from 29 games, had his lowest ever ERA (3.06) and all this from the #5 spot in the rotation.
Ken Calhoun, well he was a dead cert to be the first Athletic to hit 40 or more HRs in a single season until he went down injured on 39 for the final two weeks of the season. He was given a shot at making 40 in the final game of the year but couldn't clear the fence. Ken also hit .294 and had the third highest WAR in the PL, despite missing 19 games of baseball.
Given it all though the award has to go to Mike Whitney, he's something of a cult hero having won the rookie of the year aged 27 and has been part of the Athletics' organisation since day 1 being drafted as a 16 year old way back in 2013. This year he was even trusted with a playoff start against the defending champs, New York, and pitched a complete game with 1 run given up also he hit a 3 RBI home run. Unfortunately he wasn't given much of an opportunity on the mound for the rest of the playoffs, and just maybe we're ruing not trusting his stats and throwing him the ball.
- 23-5 record
- 3.06 ERA
- 20 quality starts from 29
- 0.9 HRs per 9 innings
- .224 opponent batting average