MLB awards watch: MVP races
By John Buhler
It’s insanely early, but who doesn’t love awards races? Players are making moves in April. Here are the front-runners in the two MLB MVP races, AL and NL.
We are roughly one month into the 2017 MLB season. Teams are starting to separate themselves. It’s looking like a promising year for teams like Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals. Maybe we get a Beltway Series in October? Washington has never been to a World Series and Cal Ripken Jr.’s hair wasn’t gray, or gone, the last time Baltimore played in the Fall Classic.
On the other side of the coin, clubs like the Atlanta Braves and the San Diego Padres continue to struggle. Their early season troubles aren’t shocking, but who would have thought the San Francisco Giants and the Toronto Blue Jays would be in the basement with sub-.500 records?
Really, it’s all about how well do the players play. Some of baseball’s biggest stars haven’t decided to heat up. A few guys we’ve come to love over the years have gotten off to hot starts in April. Then there’s a few guys that have come out of nowhere to put together impressive first months.
Let’s take a look at the way-too-early MVP race, with the top-five players in each league.
American League No. 5
Mitch Haniger
RF, Seattle Mariners
The Seattle Mariners may be one of four American League teams with fewer than 10 wins as of April 25 (8-13), but we should take this time to appreciate the hot start that right fielder Mitch Haniger has gotten off to. Unfortunately, he looks to be sidelined with an oblique strain he suffered in Tuesday’s road loss to the Detroit Tigers.
Finding offensive talent has been a beyond painful decade-long ordeal for the Mariners. While playing in Safeco Field has been awesome in terms of yielding the benefits of great pitching talent, a lack of run production has led the Pacific Northwest’s MLB club with the longest active postseason drought.
Haniger is 26 years old in his first season with the Mariners. His rookie season came last summer with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League. Haniger came in and made a big impact with his bat playing right field in April for the lackluster Mariners.
At the time of his injury he led baseball in runs with 20, with a .338/.442.600 split at the plate. His OPS+ is through the roof at 199. Hitting four home runs, having 16 runs batted in and 27 hits in 21 games for the Mariners playing in a predominately pitcher’s park was a huge plus for the Seattle batting order. It’s a bummer that he’ll be out for a while with that untimely oblique strain.