Not surprisingly, Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, after an electric season that ended strongly, won the National League MVP award over Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.
The NL MVP voting
Crow-Armstrong was consistently stellar for the Cubs, providing elite defense, quality hitting, and plenty of stolen bases.
He totaled 45 home runs and 84 extra-base hits, and 41 steals on his way to capturing the much-deserved MVP trophy.
Ohtani finished second, with 26 out of 30 second-place votes, two third-place votes, and two fourth-place votes.
This was Ohtani’s sixth straight year in the top three of MVP voting, capping what he has managed to achieve, even if he has fallen short of the award a few times.
How Shohei Ohtani lost the MVP
In the end, Ohtani fell well short of Pete Crow-Armstrong in cumulative statistics and was only somewhat on par in advanced stats.
Ohtani hit .275/.377/.512, with 30 home runs, and a 139 wRC+. PCA, on the other hand, had a .280/.372/.570 with a 157 wRC+.
In the first half of the season, Ohtani looked on track for MVP, still on pace for 40+ home runs while posting a 1.79 ERA with 95 strikeouts and just 26 walks.
However, he stopped pitching in early July; his swing was compromised for the rest of the season, and he missed a handful of weeks.
Bicep, left knee, and even neck inflammation all flared up at different points, and he looked to be noticeably wincing throughout the year.
It is impossible to know if he could have avoided his MVP loss with a preventative approach injury-wise, hitting the IL earlier in the year, and possibly getting the issues out of the way earlier so they don’t linger.
Knowing how competitive Ohtani is, while he’ll surely give the nod to PCA this year, he’ll go hard next year to reclaim his throne.
