Nick Castellanos: Jose Iglesias should’ve won NL MVP over Shohei Ohtani
Philles outfielder Nick Castellanos believes that Mets second baseman Jose Iglesias should have been crowned MVP of the National League instead of superstar Shohei Ohtani, who earned all 30 first-place votes after becoming the first member of MLB's 50/50 club and setting the Dodgers up nicely for a deep postseason run.
"If you’re looking at the MVP as having the most weight on creating wins for your team, there’s no other player that has had that much weight as Jose Iglesias," Castellanos said of his former Tigers teammate. "With him being able to come in and bring that Latin spark, knocked the ice off of [Francisco] Lindor, finally got [Mark] Vientos probably comfortable to be able to be an everyday third baseman. And now a bunch of guys that looked like they had no direction … in the beginning of the year — they made the playoffs [and] got to where they did while the whole Mets organization had the ‘OMG’ signs everywhere from in the city to [in] the stadium.
"The way I look at baseball, Jose Iglesias is [the] unanimous National League MVP."
Castellanos went on to add that Ohtani is the player he'd choose to build a franchise around and that he's the superior overall player — just not the most valuable.
"Shohei Ohtani played a huge part in the Dodgers winning," Castellanos said. "I don’t know if he’s the sole purpose of the Dodgers moving in one direction. That doesn’t mean that what Shohei did isn’t record-book worthy and he’s not an amazing baseball player. If I’m starting a team, I pick Shohei over Jose. There’s no doubt about it. I’m not stupid.
"But the way that I saw baseball last year, with my eyeballs, Jose Iglesias is the National League MVP."
Ohtani earned 423 points in the voting, while Mets shortstop Lindor finished second with 263 points.
The Dodgers clinched the NL West and finished with the best record in the league at 98-64. Ohtani, 30, posted a .310 batting average (the fifth-best in MLB) and racked up a career-high 54 home runs (second-most) in 159 games. He hasn't pitched since Aug. 23, 2023, when he was still the ace of the Angels. Since then, he had elbow surgery and accepted a monster 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers. Ohtani has unanimously won MVP three times, twice in the AL and once in the NL, in a four-year span. The one season he didn't win MVP, he finished second.
Iglesias, 35, posted a .337 batting average with four home runs while playing in only 85 games this season, producing 3.1 bWAR. The Mets finished with an 89-73 regular-season record, clinching a wild-card berth in the NL East.
Castellanos, 32, appeared in 162 games for Philly this season, finishing with a .254 batting average and 23 homers. The Philles clinched the NL East after finishing 95-67.
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