NLCS, ALCS MVP rankings: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. lead the hardware
The two Championship Series couldn’t be more different. The defending World Series champion Dodgers stifled the MLB-best Brewers in the NLCS, holding them to three runs in three games en route to a 3-0 series lead. In the ALCS, the Blue Jays and Mariners traded body blows, with the road team winning all four games. It’s a 2-2 series.
The ALCS is now a best-of-three series while the Dodgers have four chances to win a game to become the first defending champion since the 2009 Phillies to return to the World Series. With that in mind, let’s take stock of the Championship Series MVP races. This is a real reward, unlike our hypothetical Wild Card Series MVP And Division Series MVP.
With the caveat that neither series is over and a lot can change (especially in the ALCS), here are the leading candidates for both LCS MVP awards.
NLCS: Brewers vs. Dodgers (Dodgers lead 3-0)
1. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers
A wise man predicted there would be a complete playoff game and Yamamoto obliged in the second game. He threw 111 pitches in the three-hit masterpiece. Jackson Chourio hit Yamamoto’s very first pitch out of the ballpark for a 1-0 lead, and the Brewers didn’t have another runner until second base for the rest of the game. Yamamoto retired the last 14 batters he faced and only two of those 14 batters hit the ball out of the infield. This was the first complete game in the postseason since Justin Verlander in Game 2 of the 2017 ALCS. I suspect the scarcity of complete games in this era makes Yamamoto the NLCS favorite at the moment.
2. Blake Snell, Dodgers
Maybe this qualifies as an interesting take, but I think Snell’s performance in the first game was more impressive than Yamamoto’s in the second game. Snell struck out 10 Brewers in eight shutout innings and allowed only one baserunner (a single) that was erased on a pickoff, so he faced the minimum 24 batters in those eight innings. Additionally, the game was scoreless after five innings and the Dodgers had a slim 1-0 lead through eight innings. Snell had less margin for error than Yamamoto, who took a multi-point lead in the sixth and four points in the ninth. Very good games, both. Yamamoto throwing the ninth leads me to believe he is the NLCS MVP favorite over Snell.
3. Freddie Freeman, Dodgers
Last year’s World Series MVP is 3-for-12 (.250) with two doubles and a homer in the NLCS, and the homer was a sixth-inning leadoff to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead in what became a 2-1 Game 1 win. Tommy Edman, last year’s NLCS MVP, is 4-for-11 (.364) with a double and 2 RBIs in the NLCS. Mookie Betts is currently the only other Dodger with multiple RBIs, and he is 1 for 11 (.091) in the three games. Right now, it feels like there’s a pretty big gap between Nos. 1 and 2, and No. 3 in the NLCS MVP race.
ALCS: Blue Jays vs. Mariners (series tied 2-2)
1. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays
After going 0 for 7 in Games 1 and 2, Vlad Jr. broke out in Games 3 and 4, going 6 for 9 with two doubles, two home runs and two walks in both wins. He leads all players in hits (15), home runs (five) and RBIs (11) this postseason, even though Toronto enjoyed a Wild Card Series bye. This is only an ALCS MVP, not a full playoff MVP, but Guerrero still did enough to be considered the favorite to win the ALCS MVP, assuming the Blue Jays win the series.
2. Jorge Polanco, sailors
Polanco delivered the 15th-inning single to defeat the Tigers in Game 5 of the ALDS, then he opened the ALCS with the game-winning RBI single in Game 1 and the game-winning three-run home run in Game 2. He is 5-for-15 (.333) with a double, a home run and 5 RBI four games in the ALCS. If the Mariners win the series, it’s hard to think that Polanco won’t have played a major role in securing these last two victories. This makes him the ALCS MVP favorite on the Seattle side.
3. Andrés Giménez, Blue Jays
The No. 9 hitter crushing two-run homers in back-to-back games is the kind of thing that creates Team of Destiny. Giménez did just that in Games 3 and 4, and he drove in two more runs later in Game 4. It was the first time he homered in consecutive games since Aug. 15, 2002, when he homered in both ends of a doubleheader against the Tigers. Giménez is 5 for 14 (.357) with both homers and 6 RBIs in the ALCS. Shane Bieber, Bryce Miller, Josh Naylor, Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Max Scherzer and George Springer all had a tremendous ALCS and could be MVP worthy when all is said and done.
