Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong became MLB’s seventh 40-40 player on Sept. 24, stealing his 40th base against Miami after reaching 40 home runs. The article cites his WAR lead over Shohei Ohtani as support for his NL MVP case.
Through Wednesday, FanGraphs listed Crow-Armstrong at 10.6 WAR and Ohtani at 6.5; Baseball Reference’s figures were 9.8 and 5.8, respectively. The article says the gap is large enough to outweigh voters’ possible doubts about WAR.
Ohtani had not pitched since July 3, after being removed from the Dodgers’ rotation in early July. He spent most of September on the injured list with biceps, neck and knee issues and was activated Wednesday. The article argues his return came too late to change its MVP assessment.
