Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman finishes 4th in MVP voting

Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman finished fourth in voting for the National League Most Valuable Player Award Thursday.

Ballots were cast by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, with two writers representing each league city. Ballots were submitted prior to postseason play. Fourteen points were awarded for first place, nine for second place, eight for third place and on down to one point for 10th place.

Braves rookie outfielder Ronald Acuna finished 12th and right fielder Nick Markakis was 18th.

Freeman hit .309 with 23 homers and 98 RBIs in 2018.

Boston's Mookie Betts (AL) and Milwaukee's Christian Yelich (NL) were runaway winners for the awards.

Both are 26-year-old outfielders who led their teams to first-place finishes with dominant seasons that included batting titles.

Betts received 28 first-place votes and 410 points. Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout, a two-time MVP, followed with one first-place vote and 265 points. Trout tied the record of four second-place finishes shared by Stan Musial, Ted Williams and Albert Pujols.

Yelich got 29 first-place votes and 415 points, and the other first-place vote went to New York Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom, the NL Cy Young Award winner, who finished fifth. Chicago Cubs infielder Javier Baez was second with 250 points, followed by Colorado third baseman Nolan Arenado with 203.

Acquired from the payroll-paring Miami Marlins about a month before spring training, the 26-year-old Yelich won the first batting title in Brewers history with a .326 average. He set career highs with 36 homers and 110 RBIs and had a 1.000 OPS.