Bryce Harper began this season with one personal goal — and it had nothing to do with homers, RBIs or awards.

“All I wanted to do was stay healthy and stay on the field every day,” he said.

Harper did that, and a lot more. The Washington slugger put behind his injury-plagued past and put up huge numbers, becoming the youngest unanimous MVP winner in baseball history when he captured the N.L. honor Thursday.

In the A.L., Toronto third baseman Josh Donaldson took the MVP after helping to boost the Blue Jays back into the postseason for the first time since 1993.

“We tore down a lot of thresholds this organization has had,” said Donaldson, who was acquired from the A’s in a trade last November.

He added of the Jays’ division title, “For us to come out on top … I definitely think that helped.”

Donaldson received 23 first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout got the other first-place votes and finished second for the third time — he won the award last year. Kansas City outfielder Lorenzo Cain was third.

“You know going into a season that if you’re ultimately going to win an MVP, you’ve got to put up better numbers than Mike,” Donaldson said.

Donaldson led the A.L. with 123 RBIs and topped the majors by scoring 122 runs. He hit 41 home runs and batted .297.

Trout also hit 41 homers, batting .299 with 90 RBIs and 104 runs.

Donaldson joined George Bell (1987) as the only Toronto players to win the MVP.

Harper turned 23 on Oct. 16, after his Nationals had already missed the postseason. The outfielder got all 30 first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and was the first MVP in either league from a nonplayoff team since Albert Pujols with St. Louis in 2008.

“Very excited, very humbled,” Harper said.

Harper missed a slew of games in 2013 after two run-ins with walls, then was sidelined for much of 2014 after a headfirst slide that hurt his thumb. This year, he played 153 games, avoided the disabled list and kept climbing the stat charts.

“I just want to do what I do,” he said on a conference call.

Harper hit .330 with 42 home runs and 99 RBIs. He led the majors with a .649 slugging percentage and a .460 on-base average.

He was the first player from a Washington franchise to win an MVP since the BBWAA awards began in 1931 — no one on the original or expansion Senators or Nats had done it.

Harper was the fourth-youngest player overall to win an MVP, with Stan Musial, Johnny Bench and Vida Blue also 22 but not quite as old.

Arizona first baseman Paul Goldschmidt finished second in the voting and Cincinnati first baseman Joey Votto was third. Ex-A’s outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, acquired by the Mets from Detroit at the July 31 trade deadline, came in 13th.

Fan safety: Major League Baseball is close to new recommendations for safety netting at its stadiums for the 2016 season. Commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday that it “absolutely clear” there will be changes. He said there was more work to be done, and that he wasn’t prepared to go into details. There were several instances of fans injured by foul balls at MLB games this year.

Giants: The team received the Commissioner’s Award for Philanthropic Excellence, it was announced at the MLB owners meetings in Dallas. The Giants were acknowledged for their Junior Giants program, which provides participants ages 5-18 character development and baseball instruction.