Pete Crow-Armstrong has absolutely run away with the NL MVP race, leaving no doubt in the final months of the season and putting up numbers nobody saw coming. This dude has practically locked it up with a mind-blowing 10.4 fWAR, which leads all of baseball as the regular season winds down.
PCA’s Dominance Is Something Else
Forget the debate, seriously. For a minute there, we all thought this was going to be a wild race between Shohei Ohtani and Crow-Armstrong. People were talking about whether PCA’s defense could even outrank Ohtani’s pitching. It was set to be an amazing, tight race, but then Crow-Armstrong just said, “Nah, I’m good,” and took off. His lead in WAR is something we frankly haven’t seen in a long time. This guy’s not just playing out the string; he earned it. He’s crushed 45 home runs, which is a Cubs record for a left-handed hitter, and he’s almost 4 WAR ahead of Ohtani, who sits at 6.8. Yeah, Ohtani’s production and availability tailed off a bit, but PCA just went full throttle and made this his award. It’s unreal how he snagged this thing from right under everyone’s noses.
Cy Young and Reliever Races Wrap Up Too
It’s not just the MVP that’s seeing some serious separation. Padres closer Mason Miller is basically a shoe-in for NL Reliever of the Year. Seriously, Mintz thinks this dude is gonna win unanimously, and when you look at the numbers, it’s hard to argue. We’re used to relievers rocking strikeout rates around 35%, right? Miller? He’s sitting at an insane 48% this season. That’s just a different league.
Over in the Cy Young races, things are also getting settled. Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski is looking like the NL Cy Young front-runner, even with Cristopher Sánchez having more innings. Misiorowski’s got a 38.2% strikeout rate, a tiny 6% walk rate, and he’s currently holding the record for the lowest batting average against for a qualified starting pitcher in baseball history. If that holds, man, what a feather in his cap for a ridiculous season. He might just be the best pitcher in the world right now.
And don’t sleep on the AL side. Yankees ace Cam Schlittler has pulled away in the AL Cy Young race. It looked like a fight with Dylan Cease a few weeks back, but Schlittler hasn’t slowed down one bit. He’s putting some serious distance between himself and the field, including Drew Rasmussen and Parker Messick. Good luck to anyone trying to beat this guy come October.
With just one week left in the regular season, these awards are practically locked up. We’re about to see who officially takes home the hardware for their insane 2026 campaigns, and some of these guys really earned it in ways no one predicted.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
Leave a Reply