The American League MVP race is going to be a close one between two players who have both had historic seasons. The Los Angeles Angels Shohei Ohtani has been one of the most fascinating players since coming to the United States from Japan in 2018. Ohtani is a two-way player, meaning he can hit and pitch. Right now, Shohei is one of a kind in the MLB, making him that much more special. Many people say that there hasn’t been any other player in the history of baseball that can pitch and hit at the level that Ohtani is doing it at right now. As of Tuesday, September 28th, Shohei has 45 home runs and a 9-2 record and a 3.18 ERA in his 23 starts for the Angels. Ohtani has been very impressive but someone who has been having an MVP season as well is Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. As the only player in the MLB with more home runs than Ohtani, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., or Vladdy, has also had an impressive season. Vladdy currently leads all the MLB in homeruns, runs, and total bases and leads the American League in hits, on base percentage and slugging percentage. So how will there possibly be a decision between these two guys who have both had incredible seasons?

There is definitely an argument to be made for both Ohtani and Vladdy, but right now the popular opinion is leaning towards Ohtani winning the AL MVP. For a lot of people, the combination of quality hitting and pitching is just too much for Shohei not to win the award. What Ohtani has done in this 2021 season is something that nobody has ever seen before. For a guy to be in the home run race and have a really impressive season pitching on top of that is something that hasn’t even been thought about since Babe Ruth was in the league. Even when mentioning Babe Ruth and how he could also hit and pitch, Ohtani is doing both of them at a level that even Babe Ruth never came close to.  

The underdog in the race right now, Vladimir Guerrero Jr, has had himself one of the most impressive, well rounded offensive seasons that the MLB has seen in a while. The last full MLB season was in 2019, where Mike Trout won the American League MVP. In that year, Trout had 45 home runs, 104 RBIs, and had a batting average of .291. In comparison, Vladdy in 2021 has 46 home runs, 106 RBIs, and a batting average of .313. These statistics show that Vladdy has clearly had a season worthy of the MVP award. With nearly identical runs and RBIs and an average more than 20 points higher than Trout’s in 2019, Vladdy has really proven himself to the league at the young age of 22 years old and this season really being his first full year in the MLB. 

The American League Most Valuable Player Award is definitely going to be a tough decision for the Baseball Writers Association of America. In the end, there is going to be a player that had a season deserving of an MVP award, that comes in second place. It’s going to be hard to ignore what each player has done this year and say that one of their seasons was better than the others. Ohtani has done things that the baseball world has never seen before and Vladdy has had a historic offensive season. The end of the MLB regular season is approaching fast, and it is going to be interesting to see who comes away as the American League MVP.