The Yankees’ Robinson Cano finished sixth, just ahead of Boston’s Adrian Gonzalez. The Texas Rangers’ Michael Young, who finished eighth, had the other first-place vote.

This was the first time since 2003 that at least six players (received) a first-place vote for M.V.P. That season 10 players got first-place votes for the A.L. honor, which fell to Alex Rodriguez of last-place Texas. In a similarly splintered (field) this year, Joe Stiglich of the Bay Area News Group voted for Bautista, even though Toronto did not contend.

“He led the league in O.P.S., and I just thought he had very little help in that (lineup),” Stiglich said. “He was just a strong overall candidate across the (board). I don’t like going with a guy who doesn’t help his team contend seriously for the postseason, but it was kind of a process of elimination, settling on him and feeling best about going with him. I really (wrestled) with it.”

Advanced statistics were cloudy in this debate. The metric Wins Above Replacement, which attempts to quantify each player’s overall (contribution), placed Ellsbury as the league leader — but only when calculated by FanGraphs.com. By the (calculations) of Baseball-reference.com, Verlander and Bautista tied for the league lead.

This much was clear: Ellsbury led the A.L. in total (bases) while batting. 321 with 32 homers, 119 runs scored and 39 steals. Had the Red Sox (reached) the play offs, he very well could have won. But their 7-20 record in September, even as Ellsbury hit .358 for the month, likely sank his chances.