Washington Nationals: The MVP case for Anthony Rendon

The race for the NL MVP has been the most intriguing race since the start of the season. But could Washington Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon, a dark-horse candidate come in and swipe the crown away?

It only took one week into the season for writers, players and baseball fans alike to narrow the year-long race for the league’s best player in the NL down to two candidates: Christian Yelich and Cody Bellinger. No one ever thought that Washington Nationals veteran Anthony Rendon could also throw his hat in the race too.

This has still been the case, but a season-ending injury to Yelich a few weeks back has perhaps opened the door for another candidate to overtake one, if not both of the top candidates for this year’s trophy.

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Consider the Nationals for a second: First wild card spot, third-highest run differential in the league, but who screams out to you as their standout player when considering the Nationals? Max Scherzer probably first and foremost.

It has taken a while for Anthony Rendon to gain the national recognition he has and now this season, more than ever, he is deserving of your undivided attention.

He has been in the MVP voting before, but now in his seventh season and at 29 years of age, this is his most deserving year to win the coveted award.

As of September 17th, Rendon’s stats stack up with Yelich and Bellinger and even give him the edge in some important categories:

Batting Average (NL Rank)

Rendon – .333 (1)

Yelich – .329 (2)

Bellinger – .304 (9)

Homeruns

Yelich – 44 (T-3)

Bellinger – 44 (T-3)

Rendon – 34 (T-12)

Runs Batted In

Rendon – 119 (1)

Bellinger – 108 (7)

Yelich – 97 (11)

On-Base Percentage

Yelich – .429 (1)

Rendon – .417 (2)

Bellinger – .407 (3)

Slugging Percentage

Yelich – .671 (1)

Rendon – .629 (2)

Bellinger – .625 (3)

Wins Above Replacement

Yelich – 7.7 (1)

Bellinger – 7.2 (T-2)

Rendon – 7.2 (T-2)

Those numbers give you a base idea of how Rendon stacks up against the early front-runners, but with Yelich injured it could at the very least move Rendon past him in the vote totals. The lacking qualifier for Rendon is the homerun numbers.

34 is a great home run total for a single season; especially for someone who has developed as a home run hitter now in his seventh season. But it is well behind that of Bellinger who is still on a modest pace for the first 50 home run season in the National League since Giancarlo Stanton hit 59 in 2017. Stanton would win the MVP that season.

I’m not saying home runs should be the reason Bellinger gets the edge but it helps. But Rendon has clear value in a very dense third basemen group.

To edge out the likes of Nolan Arenado, Kris Bryant and Josh Donaldson in that category is hard to do with two of them being former MVPs and Arenado who has consistently put forth MVP numbers for the past four seasons now.

The value of a third baseman is easily more valuable than that of an outfielder. The hot corner has churned out several defensive stalwarts and offensive juggernauts, and while he isn’t the best defensively, Rendon holds his own.

Bellinger has been easily the most valuable right fielder this year with his combination of speed and a cannon for an arm, but it is a lot easier to have a corner outfield position taught as opposed to high-commodity infield position.

At this point, the award is Bellinger’s to lose, and the value of Rendon is certainly turning the heads of the voters. Last week, MLB.com ran a poll for the most likely to win each league’s MVP. Bellinger received 22 first-place votes, Yelich got 11 and Rendon collected 5. Consider a month before that the voters still went with those three but Rendon received no first-place votes.

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It used to be a two-man race in the National League. It still very much is a two-man race, but perhaps the two candidates are now Cody Bellinger and Anthony Rendon.

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