It says something that the people who cover the Tampa Bay Rays named Jason Bartlett the team’s MVP.

The shortstop and former Twin spent the season hitting ninth. While his batting average (.286) wasn’t bad, he had few extra-base hits and fewer walks, so his on-base percentage (.329) and slugging percentage (.361) were unimpressive.

Of the 78 American League hitters with at least 475 plate appearances, Bartlett’s OPS ranked 71st.

That’s the MVP of a 97-win team?

Bartlett’s honor is reminiscent of 1987, when Jeff Reardon — ERA, 4.70 — was voted MVP of the World Series-winning Twins.

Reardon won the honor, in essence, because his presence at the end of games transcended his stats. Even though he had enough lousy outings to ruin his ERA, he “fixed” the bullpen, which had been a major problem for the Twins in previous seasons.

Similarly, Bartlett “fixed” Tampa Bay’s previously porous defense.

Of course, he had considerable help. The Rays got B.J. Upton out of the middle infield and into center field, shifted Akinori Iwamura from third to second and installed rookie Evan Longoria at third. All those changes translated into defensive upgrades.

In addition, the bullpen was upgraded, and the pitchers did a better job of throwing strikes. (I remember seeing at least one report early in the season about manager Joe Maddon asking Bartlett how the Twins get pitchers to pound the strike zone.)

All that combined for this crucial stat: the Rays cut their runs allowed from 944 in 2007 to 671 this year.

Bartlett, in effect, became the symbol of that improvement. It’s going too far to credit him with all of it.

Did you miss him?

Here’s the twist that might surprise Twins fans: Minnesota appears to have gotten better shortstop play than Tampa Bay did.

The Twins split up the position between Nick Punto, Brendan Harris and Adam Everett, with a few innings from others. Punto emerged from the scrum with the regular job in September, but over the course of the season, he played just 36 percent of the innings.

Despite the lack of a full-time shortstop, Minnesota’s shortstops had 806 chances accepted, the most in the league. Tampa Bay’s shortstops — with Bartlett limited to 75 percent of the innings by a midseason injury — were 10th with 699.