With the American League MVP coming down to Shohei Ohtani and Shohei Ohtani, the NL MVP race is heating up. This is the time to choose who you feel will make that end-of-season push to lock their names into baseball immortality. My pick is the 30-year old outfielder in Dodger Blue.
Mookie Betts has had nothing short of an exceptional season. An NL-best 7.8 WAR, .317 AVG,(7th) with 38 HR, (4th) and a OPS+ of 172 (1st). WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is a stat that measures the impact a player has to his team. Essentially, the goal of war is that higher the WAR, the more valuable the player. A WAR of 7.8 is a great spot heading into the final month of the season as the average MVP has a WAR of around 8. Now, while Mookie Betts has put on a show for baseball and sports fans alike all summer long, he is not the front-runner for National League MVP, why?
Ronald Acuña Jr. is a 25-year old outfielder from Venezuela who became the first player in MLB history to hit 30 or more home runs (30) and 60 or more stolen bases (62). Acuña Jr. has slashed an impressive .337/.419/.574, leading the majors in hits with 180, and and 1st in runs scored with 120.
Ronald Acuña Jr. is also on the hottest and best team, the Atlanta Braves. At an 84-45 clip, the Braves hold the #1 seed in the National League as First Baseman Matt Olson is currently fighting for the home run crown against Shohei Ohtani. Olson has set a career high with 43 home runs, 1 shy of the major league lead (Ohtani, 44).
The team behind Betts is 2nd in the National league as his teammate, Freddie Freeman, is 3rd in the MVP race behind Betts. For those who don’t know, a slash line is a baseball term which refers to the statistics; Batting average, On-Base Percentage, and Slugging Percentage. A slash line is represented by BA/OBP/SLG. The 2020 MVP (Freeman) currently has a slash line of .338/.413/.586 and has the 2nd best batting average in baseball behind Luis Arraez (.350).
Betts himself had one of the best seasons ever, post-steroid era, in 2018. His 2018 MVP helped establish his reputation as one of the premier players in Major League Baseball. In 2018, Betts hit the 30-30 milestone with 32 Home Runs and 30 Stolen bases. On top of that, Betts slashed .346/.438/.640 with an outstanding 10.7 WAR. Betts would go on to lead the 2018 Boston Red Sox to the Fall Classic, winning in 7 games against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who, up to that point, had won the pennant in both 2017 and 18.
Mookie Betts signed a massive 12-year $365 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers after capturing his 2nd World Series win in 2020. Since signing, Betts has 3 All-Star appearances, a Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, and a top 5 MVP finish in 2022. He has slashed .281/.371/.542 during the span of the contract and is looking to capture his 3rd ring this year.
Betts has turned an incredible corner in the month of August. As the MVP race has heated up, Mookie has too. During the month, Betts slashed .464/.514/.814 with an outstanding 1.328 OPS, 9 HR and 26 RBI. Mookie Betts is currently the hottest player in baseball. He has also spent some time playing at arguably the hardest position to play in the infield, Shortstop for 16 games and played another 48 at 2nd base; spending the rest of the 92 games in Right Field.
Acuña Jr. has been in the MVP race all season long as his months of April and June were out of this world. Ronald Acuna Jr. started his season with a great April. Acuña Jr. slashed .353/.445/.559 with 4 Home Runs and 12 stolen bases.
His June wasn’t too shabby either as Acuna Jr. slashed .356/.429/.683 with 9 Home Runs, 22 RBI and 14 stolen bases. Acuna Jr. has turned his fantastic 2023 campaign into another great performance in August batting to a .343 average. With 5 Home Runs, 10 stolen bases, and 18 RBI, Acuña Jr. capped off his Summer by capturing MLB’s 1st 30/60 season.
As of August 29th, 2023, Mookie Betts has officially been named the betting odds favorite for the 2023 NL MVP by DraftKings (-130). With the NL West and NL East essentially wrapped up with both the Dodgers and Braves expecting to hoist the Division Crown, the question we are left with is, who is your NL MVP?
