For far of the yr, the MVP races gave the impression settled. 

Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuña Jr. have been doing issues nobody had noticeable ahead of. Ohtani was once the most productive offensive participant within the sport, moment Acuña was once hanging in combination an unmatched efficiency/whip combo. 

Each stay true. 

Even with Ohtani not able to tone the extra of the way in which, he leads the majors in house runs, slugging and OPS and appears eager to accident his solution to his moment MVP award. Acuña, in the meantime, leads baseball in runs scored, stolen bases and on-base share and is on time for the primary 35-homer, 70-stolen bedrock season in MLB historical past.

Within the ultimate case, even though, an MVP trophy is not the foregone conclusion it as soon as appeared. 

A pristine Nationwide League govern contender has emerged in Mookie Betts, who leads the senior circuit in wins above substitute, each via FanGraphs’ and Baseball Reference’s model of the statistic. Betts jumped forward because the odds-on MVP favourite Sunday ahead of Acuña took again that manage with a glorious 4-for-5 show Monday. 

Between the Dodgers and Braves, 4 respectable MVP applicants stay. 

It may well be Acuña, who’s now one house run clear of an unheard of 30/60 season.

It may well be Acuña’s teammate Matt Olson, who leads the NL in homers (43) and the majors in RBI (112). He’s on time to split Andruw Jones’ single-season franchise house run report (51), and he’s the one participant in baseball who has knocked in 100 runs. 

It may well be Betts, who’s on time for a 9-bWAR season. Since 2019, the one alternative place participant to succeed in that overall was once Aaron Pass judgement on when the 2022 American League MVP introduced 62 homers closing yr. 

Or it may well be Betts’ teammate Freddie Freeman, who has already prepared the Los Angeles franchise report for doubles in a season (50) and is on time for 62, which will be the maximum via a major-leaguer since 1936. 

Freeman’s .340 batting reasonable is most effective 10 issues clear of homogeneous that of Luis Arráez, who was once on .400 guard during the season’s first 1/2. Freeman’s .998 OPS, in the meantime, ranks moment within the NL at the back of Betts, whose second-half tear may lead to him changing into the primary participant since Frank Robinson in 1966 to win an MVP award in each and every league. 

That’s to not hurry anything else clear of what Acuña has completed. That is the most productive season of the 2018 Rookie of the Day’s profession, and it’s not like any of the 5 ahead of it. 

Acuña has probably the most hard-hit balls in baseball and extra steals via himself than the Tigers, Rockies or Giants. His 61 stolen bases are 10 greater than the next-closest major-leaguer. He has accounted for greater than 11% of the Braves’ house runs and 55% in their stolen bases. It’s an mad power-speed combo, the likes of that have by no means been noticeable, and it’s coming in a yr by which he has short his strikeout price in 1/2 from any earlier season. He may nonetheless really well hoist the trophy via season’s finish.

However the reality he’s doing all that and is not the NL’s WAR chief speaks to what Betts and Freeman are conducting atop the Dodgers’ lineup. That is Freeman’s highest complete season in his illustrious 14-year profession (now not together with the shortened 2020 season, when he gained MVP) and Betts’ highest offensive yr since his 2018 MVP season in Boston. 

“I think there’s a little bit of pushing one another,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts advised FOX Sports activities. “They just both make each other better. This is as comfortable as Mookie’s been with the Dodgers, and Freddie is by far more comfortable being here than he was last year. I think that alone has led to a lot more clarity, and just peace, which opens it up for them to perform.”

With Freeman, it is sensible that he seems extra at pleasure in his moment yr in Los Angeles. With Betts, he may quality his efficiency surge to “lifting a lot of weights, trying to get swole,” however Roberts issues to a couple of alternative elements for the hot play games. 

Betts is again with J.D. Martinez, his former Pink Sox teammate who performed a very important position in serving to him perceive his swing again in Boston. He’s additionally attending to play games the center infield, which he all the time sought after to do, and he’s taking part in for a gaggle he specifically enjoys being round. 

“Him and Freddie have become even closer,” Roberts stated. “This clubhouse, they’re just very comfortable in this whole dynamic.” 

The dynamic was once at play games this weekend in Boston, the place Betts bent the dagger additional into Pink Sox enthusiasts’ hearts via going 7-for-15 with 3 extra-base hits, giving them a front-row seat to what they’ve ignored since his business to Los Angeles in 2020. 

This yr isn’t a precise reenactment of his strange 2018 MVP season, when he led the majors with a .346 batting reasonable and .640 slugging share, nevertheless it’s as near as Betts has gotten since. There are occasions, Martinez defined closing week, when he and Dodgers hitting trainer Robert Van Scoyoc have attempted to remind Betts how difficult it’s to copy that more or less manufacturing in lately’s surrounding.

“Because he thinks he’s going to hit .350,” Martinez stated all over All-Megastar weekend. “It’s like, dude, it’s a different league. Positioning’s so much better. The analytics are so much better. The pitching breakdowns of everyone are so much better. You don’t get, like, easy at-bats anymore. You can be blowing a team out, and the guys they’re bringing in are throwing 98.

“I used to be like, ‘You’ve were given to be OK with having the pristine Mookie. You’re slugging, bro. You haven’t slugged like this in perpetually. Trip this. Each and every yr’s other. Some years you’re moving to slug extra, some years you’re moving to accident extra, you recognize? So, simply trip this, this may well be your highest yr. You by no means know.”

One month later, Betts has raised his batting average from .276 to .312 and is leading the NL in slugging and OPS. With 32 games left, he has already tied a career high in homers. 

And this version of Betts is different than any before. 

It’s hard to find a more valuable position player in baseball than a six-time Gold Glove Award-winning outfielder who, in year 10 of his career, is now seamlessly transitioning between right field and second base in a way that stands out even to a two-way superstar. 

“No longer simply lately, however simply observing guys total, I think like Mookie Betts actually impresses me,” Ohtani said through an interpreter at the All-Star Game, singling out the Dodgers’ spark plug. “He’s so flexible.” 

This weekend in Boston, Betts played both second base and right field in all three games. That kind of dynamism has played a significant role in the Dodgers breaking away in the NL West. 

Take Monday for example. 

Though Betts snapped his 15-game hitting streak, his ability to play second base allowed the Dodgers to get all their lefty outfielders — James Outman, Jason Heyward and David Peralta — into the lineup against right-hander Zac Gallen and the Diamondbacks. Those three players combined for five hits, including two homers, and five runs in the Dodgers’ MLB-best 22nd win of the month. 

It should come as no surprise that the Dodgers’ August swell is happening at the same time Betts is playing his best baseball. He has 18 extra-base hits and is leading all qualified players in every slash line category during the month (.446/.500/.782), moving into the driver’s seat of what should be the most exciting award race in baseball — one that could go back and forth the rest of the way. 

Acuña, later all, isn’t going anywhere both. 

Rowan Kavner covers the Dodgers and MLB as a whole for FOX Sports. He previously was the Dodgers’ editor of digital and print publications. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner. 

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