Phillies pitcher Nick Castellanos believes Mets second baseman Jose Iglesias should have been crowned National League MVP instead of Shohei Ohtani, who received all 30 first-place votes after becoming the first member of MLB’s 50- 50 club and stopping the Dodgers. well for a deep postseason run.
“If you look at the MVP as a weight in building your team to win, no other player has weighed as much as Jose Iglesias,” Castellanos said of his former Tigers teammate. “Being able to come in and bring that Latin spark, he cleared the ice [Francisco] Lindor, he finally found out [Mark] Vientos is probably comfortable being able to be an everyday third baseman. And now a bunch of guys who looked like they had no way … at the beginning of the year – they’re making the playoffs. [and] they got to where they did when the entire Mets organization had OMG signs everywhere from the city to [in] the field.”
“The way I look at baseball, Jose Iglesias is like that [the] The unanimous MVP of the National League.”
Castellanos went on to add that Ohtani is the player he could build a franchise around and he’s a great player — he’s just not the most important.
“Shohei Ohtani played a big role in the Dodgers’ win,” Castellanos said. “I don’t know if it’s him the sole a goal for the Dodgers going one way. That’s not to say that Shohei’s accomplishments aren’t worth recording and he’s not an amazing baseball player. When I start a team, I choose Shohei instead of Jose. There is no doubt about it. I’m not stupid.
“But the way I saw baseball last year, with my own eyes, Jose Iglesias is the MVP of the National League.”
Ohtani received 423 points in the voting, while Mets shortstop Lindor finished second with 263 points.
The Dodgers won the NL West and finished with the best record in the league at 98-64. Ohtani, 30, posted a .310 batting average (fifth-best in MLB) and hit a career-high 54 home runs (second-most) in 159 games. He hasn’t ridden since Aug. 23, 2023, while still champion Angels. Since then, he had elbow surgery and accepted a monster 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers. Ohtani won unanimous MVP three times, twice in the AL and once in the NL, in a four-year span. In the one season he didn’t win MVP, he finished second.
Iglesias, 35, posted a .337 batting average with four home runs while playing in just 85 games this season, producing 3.1 bWAR. The Mets finished with an 89-73 regular season record, earning the NL East wild card.
Castellanos, 32, appeared in 162 games for Philly this season, finishing with a .254 batting average and 23 homers. The Phillies won the NL East after finishing 95-67.
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