With the 2018 regular season having ended award season is here. The 2018 awards will be given out following the World Series but it is never too early to look at who should win the most prestigious award: the most valuable player award. There is always controversy surrounding the MVP award as people struggle to define what the “valuable” in most valuable player means. This week, we will look at who should win the MVP in the National League.
Candidates
The NL MVP race is not nearly as straightforward as the American League, with several players that have a case for the award including, Matt Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals, Lorenzo Cain of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Freddie Freeman of the Atlanta Braves. However, at the end of the day the three foremost candidates are Christian Yelich of the Brewers, the Chicago Cubs’ Javier Baez, an Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets.
The Case for Christian Yelich
Christian Yelich had a career year leading the Milwaukee Brewers to their first postseason appearance since 2012. He won the NL batting title, batting .346 with 36 home runs (third in the league) and 110 runs batted in (second in the league). Yelich lead NL position players in WAR (7.6) and led the NL in slugging percentage (.598), on-base plus slugging (1.000), and total bases (343) while finishing second in hits with 187. (baseball-reference.com) From a value perspective, it is hard to fathom just how important Yelich is to the Brewers. The Brewers won the NL Central by just one game this season, without Yelich they certainly would not have won their division and likely would have missed the playoffs altogether. The only thing that could hurt Yelich is he was “merely” good early in the season before catching fire in the second half of the 2018 campaign.
The Case for Javier Baez
The Chicago Cubs’ flashy middle infielder finally delivered on his prospect pedigree this season as the best player on a Cubs team that finished second in the NL Central and made the playoffs as a wild-card team. He led the National League with 110 RBIs and finished in the top ten in several categories, including WAR (6.3 ranking 7th), slugging percentage (.554 ranking 4th), runs scored (101 ranking 8th), hits (176 ranking 8th), doubles (40 ranking 6th), and home runs (34 ranking 7th). (baseball-reference.com) Baez will also be helped by the fact he plays for a big-market team that plays a lot of nationally televised games and has had playoff exposure each of the last four years. His flashy style of play has been well-received by many fans and his defensive WAR of 2.0 ranked second in the NL. His flashy style that makes him popular may also work against him as most of the baseball writers that vote for this award are old-school types who feel he disrespects the game. Beyond that he only led the league in one category and it was an opportunity-based one at that, so his great season may not have been great enough.
The Case for Jacob deGrom
The Mets’ ace was the only reason to watch a pedestrian Mets team in 2018 as the right-handed pitcher turned in a phenomenal season. Despite a 10-9 win loss record that he was dealt due to poor run support, deGrom lead the league in earned run average (1.70) and WAR (10.0) while finishing second in strikeouts (269), strikeouts per 9 (11.157) and baserunners per inning (0.912). (baseball-reference.com) deGrom was without a doubt the best pitcher in baseball this season but his position could work against him as a pitcher has not won an MVP award since Justin Verlander in 2012. His pedestrian record of 10-9 will work against him as well. If deGrom doesn’t win the MVP he can place some blame on his team’s poor offense and lack of run support.
Who Will Win
Baez had a very nice season but like Jose Ramirez in the AL he did not put up eye-popping numbers in any category and should finish in third place. deGrom should finish second, not by any fault of his own, but Yelich was just so good this season. The fact that he is a pitcher very well could drop him lower than second in the voting. That leaves Yelich as the clear winner, the most important cog of a Brewers’ team that returned to relevance this year. Yelich should be rewarded for his great season with a most valuable player trophy.
Full Count 
I enjoyed your insight on the MVP race in both the NL and AL. My choices would be for Christian Yelich and Mookie Betts. I believe that the second half of the season Yelich had was one of the best I have seen. He lifted up that entire team and pushed them throughout their run in the playoffs. Mookie also had a great year and is deserving of the MVP. I followed the red sox for the duration of the season and Mookie was their catalyst all year long. He provided superb defense and a lot of home runs to fuel their World series run. While the Red Sox were an extremely talented team, Betts still was the best in the league when healthy.
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