Major League Baseball has been taken over by young phenoms over the last couple of seasons and those same young players are already vying to become the next face of baseball. These names include Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna, the list goes on and on.
We have a month and a half of baseball left and should see some great pennant races in both leagues, and the MVP races in each league should be very fun to watch as well. In the American League it is a two horse race between Shohei Ohtani and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Both players have been unbelievable and one of them is doing something that we have never seen in the modern era. In the National League the current betting favorite is Fernando Tatis Jr., but with his two stints on the injured list and his shaky defense at shortstop there are a couple other names to keep an eye on.
American League
Starting in the AL, we look at two guys who play in two different countries, 2,504 miles apart. In any other season Vladimir Guerrero would be running away with the race, but this is not any other season from Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani is currently slashing .269/364/.644 with 86 RBI and 18 stolen bases while also leading the league in home runs with 39. Ohtani also has made 17 starts and is 7-1 with a 2.93 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and a 10.95 K/9. What Ohtani is doing is remarkable and is something we have never seen before. Even if he falls off in the final month and a half he should win the award if he stays healthy.
Guerrero is having an unbelievable season of his own, slashing .316/.366/.508 with 35 home runs and 88 RBI. He is the biggest bat in that lethal Blue Jays lineup and is the biggest reason why the Blue Jays are in contention for a wild card spot. The last player to win the triple crown in either league was Miguel Cabrera back in 2012 and before that you have to go back 54 years to 1967 when Carl Yastremzki won it. Guerrero has a chance to win the triple crown this year if he stays healthy and keeps up this level of production, but even that will not be enough to win MVP honors with Ohtani dominating as both a hitter and a pitcher.
National League
Fernando Tatis is currently the favorite in Vegas to win the NL MVP even though he has missed 31 of the Padres games thus far with two separate stints on the injured list for a shoulder injury. Tatis recently made the switch from shortstop to the outfield after the Padres acquired second baseman Adam Frazier from the Pirates, giving the Padres and excess in the infield with Frazier, Tatis, Manny Machado, and Jake Cronenworth, leaving Tatis as the odd man out with his 20 errors at shortstop.
Regardless of his play on defense and the injuries that he has battled, Tatis is still likely to walk away with the hardware if he can stay healthy. He is slashing .298/.377/.675 with an NL leading 34 long balls to go along with 75 RBI and 23 stolen bases.
The other players that have a chance to catch Tatis are Bryce Harper, Max Muncy, and Freddie Freeman. Harper has been worth every penny of that massive contract he signed with the Phillies, hitting .297 with a .989 OPS to go along with 20 home runs and 50 RBI. Harper has helped the Phillies have a chance at a playoff spot in the NL East and will need to keep it up if he wants to win the MVP and get the Phillies into the playoffs for the first time since 2011, the longest drought in the National League.
Muncy and Freeman are long shots at this point but both have helped their teams to current playoff positions hitting in the middle of their respective lineups. Both would need to have record breaking 40-game stretches to pass Tatis and Harper, but they have their sights set on a bigger goal, a World Series title.
The youth movement is fully underway in baseball and they are not just succeeding, but dominating and should continue to dominate for years to come. The two front runners in each league should claim the awards if they stay healthy and should be a whole lot of fun to watch down the stretch.
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