Ohtani and Ronnie. Why not?
No matter how things got sliced this year, this is a good pair of MVPs for 2023. There's no surprise villain, no flash in the pan flukey guy stealing the spotlight, no reparation picks...to a degree. Genuinely two of the best hitters in baseball right now, they're the MVPs. Fantastic. It claims the moment without talking over it with one's own narrative.
If somebody other than Acuña won in the NL I would have rioted. Nobody had ever done what he did this year, with his 73 steals and 41 homers, in addition to 100 RBIs and a .337 average. From almost the beginning of the year, it was clear that Ronald Acuña Jr. was working on a completely different level. I was very worried that the September narrative of 'yeah that's nice and all, but look at what Mookie Betts is doing' would kill this, but thankfully it did not. Acuna's deserved an MVP for the past few years, and I'm glad he's finally gotten one. May he get many more.
As for Shohei Ohtani...I feel like when September didn't kill Acuna, it should have killed Ohtani. He only played 135 games this year, got hurt in late August and missed several starts due to that, along with the last month of the season. Meanwhile, Corey Seager used September to jump into high gear and tie his excellent, mega-WAR season with a nice bow. It also was followed by an equally impressive October run, something Ohtani hasn't exactly mastered yet. To me, Seager had the fuller, and more MVP-worthy season, but the sportswriters are so blinded by Ohtani, and honestly rightfully, that they turned Ohtani's shortened season into 'LOOK AT WHAT HE COULD DO IN THIS FEW GAMES', and that still managed to work.
I think it's still a good move, as it's also a capper on Ohtani's legendary Angels run, and his last accolade before the uncertainty of his next stage of MLB work. I just think that injury should have cost him the gold. But alas, here we are.
May both players prosper and build on this season. Hopefully I'll talk about them again next November.
Both are worthy winners. Loved seeing what Acuna accomplished and wow Ohtani is special. You can make the argument for Seager but seeing Ohtani be so good on both sides of the ball was something.
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