Javier Baez and Jon Lester are co-MVPs of the 2016 NLCS
By John Buhler
Chicago Cubs second baseman Javier Baez and left-handed starting pitcher Jon Lester were named co-MVPs of the 2016 National League Championship Series.
The Chicago Cubs advance to their first World Series since 1945 by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-0, in Game 6 of the 2016 National League Championship Series. Chicago won the NLCS over Los Angeles four games to two.
Since this is the first time in 71 years that the Cubs are playing for the World Series, of course there was going to be more than one 2016 NLCS MVP. The Co-MVPs of the 2016 NLCS for the Cubs were second baseman Javier Baez and left-handed starting pitcher Jon Lester.
Baez hit .318 in the NLCS and had an OPS of .833. He had seven hits in 22 at-bats, driving in five runs, scoring three times, and hitting four doubles. Lester pitched in two games for 13.0 innings, going 1-0. His ERA of 1.38 was remarkable. Lester’s WHIP of 0.846 was out of this world. He gave up nine hits, two runs, two walks, and struck out nine batters in his 13 innings of work.
2016 is only Baez’s third big league season. For Lester, this will be his third trip to the World Series. Since coming to the big leagues in 2006, Lester was part of two World Series Championship teams with the Boston Red Sox in 2007 and in 2013.
Lester signed with the Cubs in 2015 MLB free agency. This reunited him with former Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, who now runs the Cubs front office. Chicago is as stacked of a baseball team we have seen since the late 1990s New York Yankees.
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Awaiting the Cubs in the 2016 Fall Classic is the American League Champion Cleveland Indians. This is the Indians’ first trip to the World Series since 1997. Cleveland hasn’t won the World Series since the 1948 MLB season. This is shaping up to be a World Series for the ages.