Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani earned all 30 first-place votes to become Major League Baseball’s National League MVP after becoming the first player in league history with 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. But one MLB star does not think he deserved the award.
During a recent interview with Jomboy Media, Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos said that New York Mets second baseman Jose Iglesias should have been crowned the NL MVP over Shohei Ohtani.
“If you’re looking at the MVP as having the most weight on creating wins for your team, there’s no other player that has had that much weight as Jose Iglesias,” Castellanos told Jombody Media.
“With him being able to come in and bring that Latin spark, knocked the ice off of [Francisco] Lindor, finally got [Mark] Vientos probably comfortable to be able to be an everyday third baseman. And now a bunch of guys that looked like they had no direction … in the beginning of the year — they made the playoffs [and] got to where they did while the whole Mets organization had the ‘OMG’ signs everywhere from in the city to [in] the stadium,” Castellanos continued.
“The way I look at baseball, Jose Iglesias is [the] unanimous National League MVP.”
Castellanos made it clear that this is nothing against Ohtani. In fact, if he were to build a baseball team around any player right now, it would be Ohtani. But he still thinks that Iglesias was the most valuable player in the league last season.
“Shohei Ohtani played a huge part in the Dodgers winning,” Castellanos said. “I don’t know if he’s the sole purpose of the Dodgers moving in one direction. That doesn’t mean that what Shohei did isn’t record-book worthy and he’s not an amazing baseball player. If I’m starting a team, I pick Shohei over Jose. There’s no doubt about it. I’m not stupid.
“But the way that I saw baseball last year, with my eyeballs, Jose Iglesias is the National League MVP.”
Ohtani might be the best player in baseball, but Castellanos thinks Iglesias was the most valuable to his team.
