SPORT Magazine Award

World Series MVP Award
Ben Zobrist holding the World Series MVP trophy in 2016
Award details
Given for	Annual Most Valuable Player of the World Series
Country	United States
Presented by	Major League Baseball
History
First award	1955
Most recent	Ben Zobrist, 2016 Chicago Cubs

The World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award is given to the player deemed to have the most impact on his team's performance in the World Series, which is the final round of the Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason. The award was first presented in 1955 as the SPORT Magazine Award, but is now decided during the final game of the Series by a committee of reporters and officials present at the game.

The series follows a best-of-seven playoff format, and occurs after the Division Series and the League Championship Series (LCS). It is played by the winners of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) and the American League Championship Series (ALCS). The most recent champions are the Chicago Cubs, who won in the 2016 World Series.

Pitchers have been named Series MVP twenty-seven times; four of them were relief pitchers. Twelve of the first fourteen World Series MVPs were won by pitchers; from 1969 until 1986, the proportion of pitcher MVPs declined—Rollie Fingers (1974) and Bret Saberhagen (1985) were the only two pitchers to win the award in this period. From 1987 until 1991, all of the World Series MVPs were pitchers, and, since 1995, pitchers have won the award nine times. Bobby Richardson of the 1960 New York Yankees is the only player in World Series history to be named MVP despite being on the losing team.