The National League MVP race is either wide open or already closed shut, depending on what region of the country you're asking the question in. If you're asking it in Los Angeles, you might be told that Shohei Ohtani is the runaway winner. If you move to the midwest, Pete Crow-Armstrong would be the popular name, and if you keep heading Northeast, fans in Philly will tell you that Kyle Schwarber should, at the very least, be in the conversation.
And he probably should be! Schwarbs has been the Phillies' best hitter this season, cranking 40 home runs and leading MLB with 94 RBI. He leads the NL in rOBA, has an OPS of .973 and seems like a pretty good guy — that last part probably doesn't factor into MVP voting, unfortunately.
But Schwarber's MVP window, unfortunately, might be closing before it opens because one of his main competitors, Shohei Ohtani... is doing Shohei Ohtani things again. How irritating! At this rate, Schwarber might be falling into a distant third place behind Ohtani and PCA.
Ohtani's two-way dominance might have already won him MVP
While the Dodgers' star has technically been worse at the plate than he was last year (he set pretty much an impossibly high bar for himself in 2024), he's officially returned to the mound and he looks as dominant as ever. If Ohtani continues to pitch at a high level the rest of 2025, it's like a cheat code to get MVP votes. Okay, I guess it's not a "cheat" because he actually is that good both pitching and hitting, but tie probably goes to the two-way player in MVP discussions.
But I'm not ready to close the door yet. If Schwarber keeps bombing away and the Phillies keep winning, he'll at least keep himself in shouting distance of the award. And frankly, if you told Phillies fans that Kyle Schwarber would be just on the outside looking in of NL MVP discussions before the season started, they probably would have called you a rude name and continued about their day (best city in the world, by the way). So, being near the podium is a big win for the Phillies' leftfielder who's putting together a career year.
Kyle Schwarber is trying to lead Phillies to NL East crown
He's not the hero Philadelphia deserved, but he's the one they needed in 2025. Without him, things would look awfully different for a team that hasn't gotten quite the production it expects from Bryce Harper, Trae Turner, Nick Castellanos or J.T. Realmuto this year.
But even with the other stars having relative down seasons, the Phils hold a multi-game lead over the frigid Mets in the NL East, which Philly is hoping to win in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2010 and 2011. They might be on track to do just that, but the final push will need to be supplemented with plenty more Schwarbombs to finish the job.