CLEVELAND, OH – AUGUST 11: Reliever Ryan Tepera #52 of the Chicago Cubs pitches against the Cleveland Indians during the seventh inning at Progressive Field on August 11, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cubs defeated the Indians 7-1. (Photo by Ron Schwane/Getty Images)
Cubs reliever Ryan Tepera got a surprising vote in the NL MVP race
Freedie Freeman took home National League MVP honors over the likes of Mookie Betts and Manny Machado. You can apparently add Chicago Cubs reliever Ryan Tepera to that list after he received a 10th-place vote. Who?
Tepera made 21 appearances for the Cubs and posted a 3.92 ERA. He was not terrible, but certainly not worthy of MVP consideration. For reference, Max Fried, Ian Happ, Dansby Swanson, and Devin Williams were the others to receive a single 10-place vote.
It turns out this was all a huge mistake by St. Louis writer Rick Hummel. He was trying to cast a vote for Trea Turner and had some technical difficulties.
A vote of confidence for Ryan Tepera
This is quite the wild situation. An NBC Sports story shared the explanation from Hummel.
“I’m sure the Tepera family is delighted, but there’s no way I would have voted for him. It was an accident,” said Hummel. “I fully intended to vote for Trea Turner. In fact, I remember wrestling with putting two guys in from a last place team.”
Talk about a bizarre situation. The 33-year-old Tepera now has an MVP vote to his name. Will that help him in future contract negotiations? Probably not, but it does look good on his career statistical pages.
Luckily, this accidental vote did not hurt Turner’s chances of winning the award. It ends up being another example of why MLB may want to update its voting practices or even those who vote on awards. We can all joke, but this mistake should not happen with the technology in place.