Nationals: Anthony Rendon, always the Bridesmaid, never the MVP
By TC Zencka
Anthony Rendon has forced himself into MVP conversation
Washington Nationals veteran Anthony Rendon has found yet a new gear this season.
In a contract year, he’s scrawling his name all over the Nats’ franchise leaderboards. He has set new team records from his 17-game extra-base hit streak, ended only when Jose Urena forced him from of an April 13th game with a hit by a pitch, to his two-run home run on Sunday, which upped his RBI total to 111, a new franchise season record.
Ahem, and there’s a month left to play.
If it weren’t for the three weeks he missed after Urena stung his funny bone with a 95 mph heater, Rendon might have earlier broken YeliBelli‘s Parcheesi-style blockade on the National League MVP conversation. But surprise, surprise, he’s been overlooked for much of the season.
He’s in the conversation now (though not for everyone).
There’s even a path for Rendon to tortoise-and-the-hair our lanky pair of perennial MVP candidates and take the crown. Of the top three NL players by fWAR (Bellinger, Yelich, Rendon), his narrative is already a winner.
The Brewers playoff odds are down to 10.1%, and Christian Yelich will lose some votes if his club sits out October. He’ll lose more votes because he won the award just last season (because…spite? boredom? misguided egalitarianism?).
Cody Bellinger‘s Dodgers are so far ahead in the West that he won’t play another impact game until votes are tallied. Mainstream pundits already suggest the Dodgers probably would’ve won the NL West even without Bellinger.
How can you take the best player on the best team and use his team’s dominance to detract from his MVP case, you ask? Why, only with the self-righteous obstinance of sportswriters, of course.
At the same time, Bellinger will win some votes back by being the best player on the best team too. Then there’s the fact that he’s, you know, the best player period [by fWAR], but if he slows in September, either Yelich or Rendon could pass him. Still, as the player who made the biggest leap into superstardom this season, Bellinger’s MVP narrative has legs.