Pete Crow-Armstrong’s case for NL MVP keeps looking better by the day, and the latest Shohei Ohtani wrinkle only sharpens the contrast.
What started as a tight race between the Cubs center fielder and the Dodgers’ superstar has only tilted further as October has worn on. Ohtani’s struggles have continued in the NLCS, and while postseason play doesn’t factor into MVP voting, the slump traces back to the regular season, where the gap between the two players steadily widened.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didn’t hide from the issue after Ohtani’s rough stretch.
“Yeah I mean obviously it hasn’t been good,” Roberts said. “He doesn’t feel great.
I think for me, it’s having a conversation with him tomorrow, kind of try to figure out what’s best for him, what’s best for us. He certainly has earned that conversation and deserves it.”
That conversation, and any possible benching, may matter for the Dodgers’ immediate October outlook. It does not change the award ballot, but it does serve as one more reminder of how far Ohtani’s season slipped after the break.
In the second half, he hit .245/.325/.447. Crow-Armstrong, by comparison, posted .265/.354/.623.
Ohtani’s September was even rougher: a .200 average and .233 slugging percentage before he landed on the injured list. He played only eight games that month, and any hope that the IL stint would restore him for the postseason now looks thin.
The bigger picture is where Crow-Armstrong keeps separating himself. When Ohtani was still healthy and operating as the singular force he’s been in recent years, the MVP debate was real. But as the months passed and Ohtani faded, PCA kept piling up numbers and finished off the first 40/40 season in Cubs history.
That late surge all but seals it.
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