Can Pete Crow-Armstrong Steal the NL MVP?

His offensive production has increased since making his last start on July 3, seeing jumps in average, SLG and OPS. As of Aug. 11, Ohtani leads the National League in OPS and has a .294 average. However, his sole transition to designated hitter is where Crow-Armstrong enters our story.

MVPete

One player has Ohtani beat in bWAR this season. Pete Crow-Armstrong has built up an MLB-leading 7.5 wins above replacement, compared to Ohtani’s 6.4.

PCA has established himself as the sport’s premier five-tool player. Both his contact and power hitting are unfazed by pitching splits, all while remaining a deadly threat on the base paths.

He also combats Ohtani’s pitching with exceptional defense. He leads all of baseball in two advanced defensive metrics, fielding run value and Statcast outs above average. He’s not just the best defensive outfielder, but the best defensive man in the game.

When stacking up and attempting to take an MVP from a player like Ohtani, he must excel in what Ohtani cannot. Last Thursday, Crow-Armstrong illustrated that by winning the Cubs a game on his own in extra innings.

With nobody out and a runner on second, PCA ripped a double, but the runner was cut down at home. One pitch later, he unexpectedly dashed to steal third, forced an errant throw and hustled home to end the game.

Right now, he tails Ohtani’s offensive stats by a small margin but beats him in hits. However, he’s had a bigger increase in OPS than Ohtani has since July 3. It might only be a matter of time before his slash line jumps Ohtani’s, all while the WAR gap widens.

The NL MVP Discretion

To truly assess who will be more deserving of the prestige, the award must be defined itself. It is the most valuable player of the year, not necessarily the best player of the year.

According to FanGraphs’ determination of WAR (fWAR, different from bWAR), Crow-Armstrong makes up a higher percentage of the Cubs’ total fWAR (27%) than Ohtani does of the Dodgers’ (19%). Shouldn’t that numerically make him a more valuable player to his team than Ohtani?

But that’s a far-fetched, overly mathematical way to pick a side. Since their offensive production mirrors each other’s, a differentiator is needed. What’s more valuable: 162 games of Platinum Glove defense, or 14 games of Cy Young-level pitching?

“If he continues at this pace, [PCA] is your National League MVP.” Mark DeRosa said on MLB Network. “Obviously, Shohei doesn’t play in the field, but Shohei’s pitching and PCA’s fielding offset each other. And then [PCA’s] the better base runner. He’s got to keep up the pace, but the argument’s there to get romantic about the idea of PCA winning the NL MVP.” 

“If you want to compare PCA’s first half as a hitter and Shohei’s as a pitcher, it ain’t a conversation,” Harold Reynolds said. “So then you want to say, ‘Second half, we’ll compare them both as hitters’, it’s no conversation … This dude pitched, hit in the same game, and then played the next day for most of those 85 innings. He’s just different. You can’t ignore how he impacted the game.”

The most exciting part of this discourse is the decision does not need to be made now. Both players get two more months and 40 more games to break records and amaze crowds.

Plus, an MVP race might not be the most critical dispute between Ohtani and PCA in 2026. Both players’ clubs are well on their way to the postseason, potentially setting up for an MVP fight for the World Series.