Miami Marlins notes: NL awards news involve rivals

I talked about the National League MVP race before and not much has changed, except for the official nominations finally taking place. As the Miami Marlins have begun the off-season and the team has finally hired a manager. The award season is fun to follow however, even if no Marlins players are involved this time around.

Who will win the National League MVP award?

I'm not upset about the awards here, as I was with the Gold Glove awards earlier. I'm curious to see who wins however. Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers is the clear favorite. That said, no DH has ever won the NL MVP award. Defense plays a part and is something that will count against Ohtani. The question is will it be enough of a detriment? He batted .310/.390/.646, with 54 home runs and 130 RBI in 159 games and 636 AB. He was worth 9.2 WAR.

Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets plays a premium defensive position of SS. He batted .273/.344/.500, with 33 home runs and 91 RBI in 152 games and 618 AB. He was worth 7.0 WAR. The final nominee is Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He batted .292/.372/.560, with 36 home runs and 95 RBI, in 136 games and 504 AB. He was worth 6.8 WAR. He plays a premium position of second base.

It's pretty clear to me, that Ketel Marte should not be winning the NL MVP award. He has the lowest WAR and has been the least impressive of the three nominees. Just based on WAR and the counting stats, it has to be Shohei Ohtani. The only real knock against him is tha he doesn't play defense. I don't see it as a big deal, as the difference in WAR and the counting stats is just too high to be overcome easily.

So who should win the National League MVP award? My vote would go to Shohei Ohtani. He just had too impressive of a season not to receive the award. I also expect that to be the reason why he does indeed win it.