MLB: Dominicans Tatis Jr., Guerrero Jr. and Soto were left empty-handed in the MVP

The 2021 MLB season was historic in many ways, and that can be summarized in the triples for the MVP of both the National League and the American League, and especially for the Dominican Republic, since three of its representatives were on the list of finalists for both awards, with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Juan Soto in the Old Circuit and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the Young, who also made history by being the first third of nominees aged 23 or younger.

However, unfortunately for them, none of them took the coveted award, with Bryce Harper and Shohei Ohtani winning the National and American respectively, with Soto and Tatis finishing second and third, and Vladdy Jr. in the silver position in an election that saw the Japanese take the MVP unanimously, with 29 of the votes to second place for Guerrero Jr.

The truth is that this decision did not go down well at all in the Dominican Republic and there was quite a lot of controversy in general for those elections, since at least in the National, Harper only led in extra bases, OPS and slugging, in addition to other analytical categories such as wOBA and wRC +, while Soto and Tatis Jr. were 1-2 in WAR at 7.2 and 6.6 respectively, with Harper coming in at 5.9 in that category.

In addition, Soto led the National in hits (157), runs scored (111), OBP (.465) and walks (145), in addition to Tatis Jr. was the circuit’s home run leader (42) and offensive WAR ( 7.2).

On the side of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., there is no doubt that his season was also historic and he became perhaps the most complete hitter in all of MLB, leading the American in home runs (48 tied with Salvador Pérez), total bases, (363) , runs scored (123), OPS (1,023), and OPS + (169), with a WAR of 6.8. In a normal year, Vladdy Jr. would have been the MVP, but he faced an impressive phenomenon at Shohei Ohtani.

Ohtani himself led MLB in WAR with 9.1 becoming the most complete pound-for-pound player perhaps in all of Major League history, since he is the only player to have a season with at least 100 IP, 100 K’s, 9 wins how pitcher, 100 hits, 40 home runs, 20 stolen bases and an OPS of more than .900, so maybe Vladdy didn’t have a chance.

Gabriel Delgado

I started as a rookie on Al Bat in early 2018 and I am going into my third season covering Major League Baseball as a web reporter. I am a fan of the San Francisco Giants, a number one defender of Barry Bonds and a critic of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto and Ronald Acuña are the future of baseball, Mike Trout is overrated, and the Astros deserved to be taken away from the World Series for cheating. Besides baseball, I also enjoy soccer, football, basketball, and just about any other game that includes a ball or a ball. I am also an amateur musician, penniless gamer and very nerdy. Graduated in journalism from the University of Guadalajara, I graduated in 2017. Born in the shrimp capital of the world, Escuinapa, Sinaloa. I lived in Australia for a while; i survived giant spiders, tasmanian devils and fought a kangaroo and didn’t die trying.

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