Thinking about the Betts vs. Trout debate got me thinking about the MVP award in general and how much I hate it. About how some people want to award it to the player having the best statistical season, standings be damned, while others only want to award it to a key player on a contending team. It’s a conundrum to be sure and one that has never been fully resolved. So here’s what I’m suggesting. Let’s do away with the MVP award and instead hand out three separate awards.
First up would be the traditional MVP award. The hardware assigned to the player who is the most valuable to his team. But here’s the rub: it wouldn’t necessarily be the best player. Just the guy who gives his team the most value. In other words, for the first time in history we’re going to factor in a player’s contract status when voting for this award. According to this logic, Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge would have been the American League MVP last year. How could he not? 52 homeruns and great defense on a rookie contract? It just doesn’t get any more valuable than that. Until this year that is. When Angels rookie Shohei Ohtani comes over from Japan and both hits and pitches at an elite level. I’m sorry but there’s no way you can tell me that Ohtani isn’t the most valuable player in baseball for the next five years. Even if his own teammate, Trout, puts up better numbers overall.
If Trout can’t be the MVP because Ohtani is now claiming it then how do we honor the best player in the game? It’s simple, we create a second award, an offensive player of the year award that he could win. And what about Betts? The best player having the best year on the best team? The guy who is vital to his team’s success? We create a third award for that guy. A most indispensable player award, to be given to the guy whose team wouldn’t be in the playoffs if not for his antics.
Logically this makes sense. If a star player is injured and his team goes into the tank without him isn’t that the textbook definition of value? And yet we never award the MVP to an injured player. Under this new three award system we could. This isn’t just a matter of semantics though. By splitting the MVP award into three separate awards, one that honors peak performance, one that honors performance relative to team success, and one that honors “value” in the truest sense of the word, we would finally be able to put an end to the tiring debate over who deserve to be the MVP. There would be no more confusion, no more injustice. The results would be straight forward. Cut and dry. Boring even. Just the way baseball likes it.
Is breaking up the MVP award into three separate awards the Greatest Idea Ever?
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