Players who won an MVP with the Athletics | Immaculate Grid Answers for Grid 120 July 31, 2023

Are you hooked on Immaculate Grid, the daily trivia game from Baseball Reference? We sure are! We’ll warn you right now—this blog post contains spoilers. But if you’re looking for a little help with today’s grid (or you already filled it out and want to know who else qualified) read on.

To fill out today’s grid, you need to choose players who won an MVP with the Athletics. Here are some examples:

Miguel Tejada

Miguel Tejada won the home run derby at the 2004 All-Star Game in Houston, TX, with a short-lived record of 15 in one round. That is just one of a number of highlights in a remarkable career that saw him win an MVP Award while being named to the All-Star team six times.

Signed by the Oakland Athletics out of the Dominican Republic in 1993, Tejada first reached the majors with the A’s late in the 1997 season. He came up when two other young shortstops were making headlines in the American League, Derek Jeter with the New York Yankees and Nomar Garciaparra with the Boston Red Sox. Both had won a Rookie of the Year Award – Jeter in 1996 and Garciaparra in 1997, so at first Tejada was a forgotten man in the relative anonymity of Oakland, especially after a sub-par rookie season when he only hit .233 with 11 homers in 1998. He blossomed, however, after hitting 21 homers and driving in 84 runs in 1999. In 2000, he hit .275 with 30 homers and 115 RBI to draw his first MVP votes, then repeated in 2001 with a .267 average, 31 homers and 113 RBI. He did not miss a single game during those two seasons. Still under the radar of most fans at that point, he burst into prominence during 2002, the A’s famous “Moneyball” season, when he made a number of key hits to propel comeback wins in the late season and his name suddenly became prominent. He played in the All-Star Game for the first time and finished the season with a .308 average, 34 homers and 131 RBI, scoring 108 runs. He was voted the winner of the 2002 American League Most Valuable Player Award, besting his two rivals Jeter and Garciaparra, neither of which ever were MVP.

Jason Giambi

Jason Giambi the 2000 American League MVP, hit 440 home runs in the major leagues, thus putting him at #41 on the all-time list when he retired after the 2014 season. His career was spent with four teams, the Oakland Athletics, the New York Yankees, the Colorado Rockies and the Cleveland Indians.

He has compiled 100+ RBI seven separate times. He has also drawn 100+ walks in a season seven times, and his 1366 walks rank as # 32 on the all-time list. He also got on base frequently via hit-by-pitch, with 180 times lifetime.

Dennis Eckersley

Dennis Eckersley is one of only a few pitchers to excel as both a starter and a closer. His 390 saves rank 7th all-time, while his 197 victories put him in a tie for 121st with fellow Hall of Famer Dazzy Vance, among others.

Eck made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians in 1975. On May 30, 1977, he pitched a no-hitter against the California Angels. After three solid seasons with the Tribe, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox in 1978. That year, he won 20 games and was the team’s ace, although the task of pitching the decisive one-game playoff against the New York Yankees on October 2nd fell to his teammate Mike Torrez, since Eckersley had earned a key win in a start 48 hours earlier. He remained a mainstay in the Boston rotation until 1984, getting the start in the 1982 All-Star Game, when he was traded to the Chicago Cubs for Bill Buckner. He won 10 games for the Cubs in 1984 and helped them win their division. He remained in the Cubs’ rotation for the next two seasons, and was traded to the Oakland Athletics for three minor leaguers just before the start of the 1987 season.

Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson felt that the public never properly appreciated him. He tended to talk himself up, and that did not go over well with the sportswriters. However, eventually, his career numbers became so impressive that everyone had to recognize his substantial accomplishments, and when time came to vote on his candidacy for the Hall of Fame, he was elected with overwhelming support on the first ballot. Shortly after his induction in Cooperstown in 2009, the Oakland Athletics retired his uniform number 24. Henderson is widely considered the greatest leadoff hitter of all time.

Jose Canseco

Jose Canseco was a huge star during his best years, an often-injured slugger in the middle of his career, and the prime symbol of the steroid era later on when he admitted using steroids. A six-time All-Star, he won the 1986 American League Rookie of the Year Award and was the 1988 American League MVP. He played for the Oakland Athletics with his fellow bash brother teammate Mark McGwire and under manager Tony LaRussa for the first half of his career, and then became a journeyman slugger in the second half of his career.

All MVP Winners List

You can see all MVP winners in MLB history. Good luck with your grid!

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