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PHILADELPHIA — On the one hand, the Atlanta Braves’ Marcell Ozuna has little or no chance of winning the National League Most Valuable Player Award, because no primary designated hitter has ever won his league’s MVP award and Ozuna is a DH exclusively. On the other hand, so is Shohei Ohtani . Ohtani, the two-way phenom, has been a one-way superstar in his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers , since he isn’t pitching this year while recovering from elbow surgery.
He’s served as a full-time DH for the Dodgers, and right now he’s the overwhelming favorite to win NL MVP in a season when most other potential candidates have slumped or been injured. Advertisement Ozuna knows that’s the case, even if his own spectacular season includes a few notable stats in which he ranks ahead of Ohtani including batting average, OBP and RBIs, where Ozuna leads the majors with 98. “I don’t think I’ll get any votes, because he’s the best,” Ozuna said of Ohtani, dismissing any possibility of his contending for MVP in a year when the Dodgers’ star already became the fastest in history to reach 40 homers and 40 stolen bases in a season.
As far as value to one’s team, Braves manager Brian Snitker says no player has been more valuable to a team this season than Ozuna to the Braves. “Without him, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here where we are right now,” Snitker said before Thursday night’s 5-4 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in a much-anticipated series opener at Citizens Bank Park. In a hypothetical situation where Shohei Ohtani becomes the first player ever to record a 50 HR/50 SB season AND Marcell Ozuna wins the Triple Crown, who wins NL MVP? #MLBTonight pic.
twitter.com/9jWl3xeEpA — MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) August 23, 2024 It was a brutal loss for the Braves, given that they got two homers from Matt Olson and led 4-0 entering the bottom of the sixth inning, seemingly in position to trim the Phillies’ NL East lead to four games with three left to play in this series. Instead, Charlie Morton gave up a three-run homer to Brandon Marsh in the sixth inning and rookie Grant Holmes surrendered a decisive two-run homer to Nick Castellanos in the seventh.
Snitker was asked to explain his decision to leave Morton in to face the lefty-hitting Marsh, after two of the first three hitters in the inning had reached on singles and lefty Aaron Bummer was warmed up in the bullpen. Snitker said it was in part because Morton struck out Marsh in his two previous at-bats. Advertisement “He was going to go through to (Kyle) Schwarber,” said Snitker, explaining that he had planned to stick with Morton through Marsh and 9-hole hitter Austin Hays before going to Bummer to face Schwarber.
That backfired when Morton hung a 1-0 curveball over the middle that Marsh hit high and hard. “If I knew he was going to hit a homer I’d have probably taken him out,” Snitker said tersely. “I don’t have that luxury.
And he’s a good matchup, for me, right there. I like Charlie’s breaking ball on him. He popped him up, and the wind blew it out.
” To be clear, it was not a pop-up — Marsh’s homer had a high arc, but was 100.7 mph off the bat. Marshy for 3! #RingTheBell pic.
twitter.com/enTeuWnpZQ — Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) August 30, 2024 As for Holmes, he said it’s all a learning process, and he learned how costly it can be missing with location on an 0-1 fastball to Castellanos, after getting him to swing and miss on a first-pitch heater. But he didn’t sound like he regretted throwing him a fastball there, even though the scouting report suggests breaking ball would’ve been the better pitch selection to Castellanos.
Offensively, it was a rare night when someone besides Ozuna carried the bulk of the offensive load for the Braves — among Olson’s two homers was a mammoth two-run drive in the third inning that sailed an estimated 450 feet over the towering, ivy-covered batter’s eye in center field. Balls rarely travel to that area of this ballpark. Olson has seven homers and 22 RBIs during a 19-game stretch in which the Braves have gone 13-6 to make up some ground on the Phillies, cutting their NL East lead from 8 1/2 games to six, with 28 games left on each team’s schedule.
That’s why Thursday’s loss was particularly difficult to swallow, since the Braves are running out of time if they have any hope of winning a seventh consecutive NL East title. Advertisement They could’ve trimmed the deficit to four games if they’d protected the four-run lead. “Charlie threw well, worked himself out of some jams,” Olson said, “but two big swings on some pitches, and they scored five runs from it.
” Besides a starting rotation led by Cy Young Award favorite Chris Sale and a deep bullpen led by closer Raisel Iglesias — but a pen that feels the absence of lefty A.J. Minter on nights like this; he’s out for the season after hip surgery — the other big factor for Atlanta has been the bat of Ozuna.
It stayed hot at various points when the likes of Olson, Sean Murphy , Orlando Arcia , Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies — the latter two currently recovering from hand and wrist fractures, respectively — went ice cold. He might not have a shot at beating out Ohtani for MVP, but Ozuna has a chance to do something else quite rare: Win the Triple Crown. No player has led the NL in average, homers and RBIs since 1937, when the St.
Louis Cardinals’ Joe Medwick won the Triple Crown as well as league MVP. The last AL player to do it was the Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera in 2012. Since Medwick won it, the only players to even rank among the top two in the NL in all three Triple Crown categories — average, homers, RBIs — were Tommy Holmes in 1945 and Hall of Famers Johnny Mize (1940), Willie Mays (1955) and Jeff Bagwell (1994).
Ozuna currently leads the NL in average (.308) and RBIs and is second in homers with 37, five behind Ohtani. “I just produce the numbers.
MVP, I don’t follow it,” Ozuna said. “Triple Crown is better than MVP for me, because you compete with everyone in the league, not just one.” And because it’s not at all subjective.
Just stats, no voting. “Yes, that’s the best,” Ozuna said. Most of Ozuna’s traditional stats are fairly comparable to Ohtani’s, with the glaring exception of steals — Ozuna has none and Ohtani had 42, to go with 42 homers before Thursday’s late Dodgers game.
He’s the sixth member of the 40-40 club and first to do it before the calendar even flipped to September. (Ozuna’s teammate Ronald Acuña Jr. became the fifth in the 40-40 club last season, finishing with a staggering 73 steals to go with 41 homers.
) Advertisement Ohtani entered Thursday with an NL-best 319 total bases to Ozuna’s 292, and Ohtani held a significant advantage in fWAR at 6.4 to Ozuna’s 4.5.
WAR stats are particularly important to many voting writers today when it comes to filling out MVP ballots. Ozuna was fifth in the NL in fWAR before Thursday, impressive considering he has no defense to contribute to the computation. But Ohtani being second in the NL in fWAR, just a couple of ticks behind New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (6.
6), was a huge statement for Ohtani’s impact on offense. Even if Ozuna has as good or better shot at winning the Triple Crown than Ozuna, he knows he doesn’t have a realistic shot at beating him out for MVP, barring injury. “Yeah, it’s not the same,” Ozuna said of their comparable stats.
“He’s better. He’s got all the publicity. He’s the face of MLB .
I just make the numbers, I don’t worry about MVP and I don’t worry about any of those awards. If it comes, it comes. But if it don’t, who cares?” Ozuna also is a throwback of sorts, to an era when the best all-around hitters strived to hit both .
300 and hit 30 homers. This season, Ozuna and presumptive AL MVP Aaron Judge are the only two hitters in the majors with .300 or better averages and at least 30 homers.
“I know, there’s only a few of them doing it this year,” Snitker said of Ozuna’s old-school hitting profile. “We go back to May of last year, where all this started (for Ozuna). His numbers are just phenomenal.
What he’s done for us. He’s been the constant all year long. I mean, there haven’t really been a lot of ebbs and flows or whatever.
He’s been consistent from Day 1 (this season).” (Photo of Marcell Ozuna: Brad Rempel / USA Today).
