It is awards week in Major League Baseball, and it looks like two teammates are the frontrunners for the NL MVP award–third-baseman Nolan Arenado and first-baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Both play for the St. Louis Cardinals. Who has the edge?
Arenado and Goldschmidt on a night when they both honored in consecutive games (photo courtesy KMOV)
Arenado may have the edge with his streak of winning ten Gold Gloves over a decade of MLB service. He also just won his sixth consecutive Platinum Gold Glove, recognizing the best fielder at any position. Offensively, Arenado hit .293 this season with 30 home runs and 103 RBIs, and he is just short of 300 career home runs.
On the opposite side of the diamond, Paul Goldschmidt had an exceptional year offensively, hitting .317 with 35 home runs and 115 RBIs. That batting average was the league’s third-best, and his whopping .578 slugging percentage was the league’s-high. Those stats earned him the NL Silver Slugger award, the fourth of his career. Goldschmidt’s excellence also extends to the defensive side, where he is a three-time Gold Glove winner.
Both players were named to this year’s All-Star team, and that is yet another reason why the MVP call will be no easy matter. We’ll have to wait until Thursday to see which player wins it.
Don’t count out a third candidate, either, Manny Machado of the San Diego Padres. Machado hit .298 for the year with 32 home runs, 100 runs, 172 hits, and 102 RBIs. The knock against Machado is his high strike-out rate (~25% of his plate appearances in 2022).
