Major League Baseball

Mookie Betts? Ronald Acuña Jr.? Suddenly, the NL MVP race is going down to the wire

Updated Aug. 29, 2023 3:04 p.m. ET

For much of the year, the MVP races appeared settled.

Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuña Jr. were doing things no one had seen before. Ohtani was the best offensive player in the game, while Acuña was putting together an unrivaled power/speed combo.

Both remain true.

Even with Ohtani unable to pitch the rest of the way, he leads the majors in home runs, slugging and OPS and looks poised to hit his way to his second MVP award. Acuña, meanwhile, leads baseball in runs scored, stolen bases and on-base percentage and is on pace for the first 35-homer, 70-stolen base season in MLB history.

In the latter case, though, an MVP trophy is no longer the foregone conclusion it once seemed.

A new National League top contender has emerged in Mookie Betts, who leads the senior circuit in wins above replacement, both by FanGraphs’ and Baseball Reference’s version of the statistic. Betts jumped ahead as the odds-on MVP favorite Sunday before Acuña took back that lead with a dazzling 4-for-5 display Monday.

Between the Dodgers and Braves, four legitimate MVP candidates remain.

It could be Acuña, who's now one home run away from an unprecedented 30/60 season.

It could be Acuña’s teammate Matt Olson, who leads the NL in homers (43) and the majors in RBI (112). He’s on pace to break Andruw Jones’ single-season franchise home run record (51), and he’s the only player in baseball who has knocked in 100 runs.

It could be Betts, who’s on pace for a 9-bWAR season. Since 2019, the only other position player to reach that total was Aaron Judge when the 2022 American League MVP launched 62 homers last year.

Or it could be Betts’ teammate Freddie Freeman, who has already set the Los Angeles franchise record for doubles in a season (50) and is on pace for 62, which would be the most by a major-leaguer since 1936.

Freeman’s .340 batting average is only 10 points away from matching that of Luis Arráez, who was on .400 watch throughout the season’s first half. Freeman’s .998 OPS, meanwhile, ranks second in the NL behind Betts, whose second-half tear could result in him becoming the first player since Frank Robinson in 1966 to win an MVP award in each league.

That’s not to take anything away from what Acuña has accomplished. This is the best season of the 2018 Rookie of the Year’s career, and it’s unlike any of the five before it.

Acuña has the most hard-hit balls in baseball and more steals by himself than the Tigers, Rockies or Giants. His 61 stolen bases are 10 more than the next-closest major-leaguer. He has accounted for more than 11% of the Braves’ home runs and 55% of their stolen bases. It’s an insane power-speed combo, the likes of which have never been seen, and it’s coming in a year in which he has cut his strikeout rate in half from any previous season. He could still very well hoist the trophy by season’s end.

But the fact he’s doing all that and is no longer the NL’s WAR leader speaks to what Betts and Freeman are accomplishing atop the Dodgers’ lineup. This is Freeman’s best full season in his illustrious 14-year career (not including the shortened 2020 season, when he won MVP) and Betts’ best offensive year since his 2018 MVP season in Boston.

"I think there’s a little bit of pushing one another," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told FOX Sports. "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 makes sense that he looks more at ease in his second year in Los Angeles. With Betts, he might attribute his power surge to "lifting a lot of weights, trying to get swole," but Roberts points to a few other factors for the recent play.

Betts is back with J.D. Martinez, his former Red Sox teammate who played a vital role in helping him understand his swing back in Boston. He’s also getting to play the middle infield, which he always wanted to do, and he is playing for a group he particularly enjoys being around.

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

The dynamic was at play this weekend in Boston, where Betts twisted the dagger further into Red Sox fans’ hearts by going 7-for-15 with three extra-base hits, giving them a front-row seat to what they’ve missed since his trade to Los Angeles in 2020.

This year isn’t an exact reenactment of his extraordinary 2018 MVP season, when he led the majors with a .346 batting average and .640 slugging percentage, but it’s as close as Betts has gotten since. There are times, Martinez explained last month, when he and Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc have tried to remind Betts how hard it is to replicate that kind of production in today’s environment.

"Because he thinks he’s going to hit .350," Martinez said during All-Star 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 was like, ‘You’ve got to be OK with having the new Mookie. You’re slugging, bro. You haven’t slugged like this in forever. Ride this. Every year’s different. Some years you’re going to slug more, some years you’re going to hit more, you know? So, just ride this, this could be your best year. You never 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.

"Not just today, but just watching guys overall, I feel like Mookie Betts really impresses me," Ohtani said through an interpreter at the All-Star Game, singling out the Dodgers’ spark plug. "He’s so versatile."

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, after all, isn’t going anywhere either.

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.