MLB’s most valuable players…and how valuable are they?
By Bill Felber
2. Juan Soto, Washington Nationals
2021 salary: $8.5 million
2021 value: $19.655 million
Difference: $11.155 million
Both the comparison between Soto and Harper, the superb level of their play and the fact that they emerge as the two principal contenders for NL MVP this week makes a deeper examination of their differences desirable.
Let’s begin with a statistical side-by-side.
PA HR RBI Slash OPS+ WAR DRS
Harper 599 35 84 .309/.429/.615 179 5.9 -6
Soto 654 29 95 .313/.465/.534 175 7.0 3
Plainly these two players merit consideration for National League accolades. The side-by-side illustrates that Soto’s principal advantage lay in his superior WAR, which probably reflects some measure of defensive superiority as well as a superior ability to get on base.
Conversely, Harper’s power edge advantages him in OPS+, although not by much.
In fact the data places great weight on that 7.0 WAR of Soto’s, more than a point better than Harper’s 5.9. In fact, the 1.1 point gap between the WARS of Soto and Harper was greater than the gap between Harper and the guy back in fourth place in the position, Kyle Tucker.
By contrast, while Harper led the third-ranking right fielder (Acuna) in OPS+ by 25 points, he only led Soto, the runner-up, by four. So Soto hung with Harper in the category Harper dominated, but Harper did not hang with Soto in the category Soto dominated.
Bottom line: If I had a vote for NL Most Valuable Player, I’d say the data supports giving it to Juan Soto.