Ranking the top 5 dark horse 2015 NL MVP candidates

Giancarlo Stanton. Andrew McCutchen. Buster Posey. Clayton Kershaw. Easy choices, and each are almost guaranteed to draw votes for the 2015 National League Most Valuable Player during the upcoming season. For good reason, too, as each are amazing players who play vital roles for their respective teams. They have shown over the past five seasons they are the players to beat, and have also shown that they likely will be names in the history books when all is said and done.

Jonathan Lucroy. Anthony Rendon. Josh Harrison. While these are names of capable and worthy players, they are not definitive All-Star brand names. At the beginning of the 2014 season, many expert analysts knew that these respective players would produce at a strong rate, but to the general populace of baseball fans these names were just names of any other baseball player. At the end of year, it was shown that each of these three players played a vital role on their respective teams, and each made it into the top 10 of the NL MVP vote during the 2014 season.

A dark horse candidate does not need to be a total no-namer to be a true dark horse, but they also should not be a name branding your Wheaties cereal box every other year. They can be players who have been in the race in the past, but have fallen out of MVP consideration over the past few seasons. They can be young and budding players, or they can be stoic veterans who have fallen into the yearly grind of playing. Here are my top five dark horse candidates for NL MVP in 2015.

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