FILE - In this Sept. 4, 2020, file photo, Atlanta Braves' Freddie Freeman celebrates as he crosses home plate after hitting a grand slam to center field during the fourth inning of the second baseball game of the team's doubleheader against the Washington Nationals in Atlanta. Freeman easily won the NL MVP award Thursday, Nov. 12, topping off a trying year that saw him become so ill with COVID-19 he prayed “please don’t take me.” (AP Photo/John Amis, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — As opening day finally approached, Freddie Freeman had far bigger concerns than perfecting his swing and practicing his scoops.

Just being able to walk a few steps was hard enough.

“It wasn’t the way I wanted to start, with COVID,” the Atlanta Braves first baseman said. “I was able to beat it.”

And then some.

Freeman easily won the NL MVP award Thursday, topping off a trying year that saw him become so ill with COVID-19 he prayed “please don’t take me.”

Chicago White Sox slugger José Abreu earned the AL MVP, a reward for powering his team back into the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

Freeman got 28 of the 30 first-place votes in balloting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts got the other two firsts to finish second, and San Diego third baseman Manny Machado was third.

In a season affected from spring training to the World Series by the pandemic, perhaps it was fitting the final major award of the year went to someone infected by the coronavirus.

Three weeks before the delayed opening day in late July, Freeman’s body temperature spiked at 104.5 degrees and he lost his sense of taste and smell. At one point, he recalled earlier, he said a little prayer because “I wasn’t ready.”

“It impacted me pretty hard,” he said.

Freeman said it took him a couple weeks into the season to find his footing. He tried to conserve his energy, too — he skipped the daily routine of batting practice on the field and cut down how much he hopped off first base while holding on runners.

The 31-year-old Freeman soon found his stride, batting .341 with 13 home runs and 53 RBIs while playing all 60 games. A powerful lefty batter with the ability to spray the ball all over the field, he led the majors with 23 doubles and 51 runs.

Boosted by the four-time All-Star, the Braves won the NL East for the third straight season and came within one win of reaching the World Series for the first time since 1999.

Cleveland third baseman José Ramirez finished second in the AL MVP voting and Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu was third.

Abreu led the majors with 60 RBIs and 148 total bases, and topped the AL with 76 hits and a .617 slugging percentage. He played in all 60 games during the virus-shortened season as Chicago claimed a wild-card spot.

The 33-year-old Abreu batted .317 with 19 home runs, connecting six times in a three-game series against the Cubs in late August. That barrage of longballs at Wrigley Field was part of his 22-game hitting streak, the longest in the majors this year.