David Ortiz gave MLB reporter Hector Gomez a
quote on the NL MVP race a couple of days ago, and his response seems a little bit like sour grapes:
Quote:
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“Im going to see where MLB is going to go this year. They always had a thing to find a way to deny me the MVP because I was a DH. I’ll see what happens this year. I’m going to sit and watch what will happen. Also, you know that Ohtani is the "pretty boy" of the MLB".
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Yup -- that's bitterness.
If Ohtani were to win the MVP Award this season, he would be the first full-time DH in MLB history to do so. As a former full-time DH himself and current Hall of Famer, Ortiz finished as high as 2nd place in the MVP voting back in 2005, falling only 24 points short of Alex Rodriguez's 331 points.
The best argument Ortiz probably had for an MVP Award was in 2006, when he finished with the highest home run total in the league with 54, and the 3rd highest OPS with 1.049. The MVP went to Justin Morneau, who ended up with a lower bWAR than Ortiz. Derek Jeter finished 2nd, and he too had a lower bWAR than Ortiz.
As for Ohtani, he currently has both the highest home run total and OPS in the league. He's also a good base runner -- unlike Ortiz, who was a very mediocre base runner -- on pace to steal over 50 bases with only a handful of times being thrown out. Paired with potentially 50 home runs, Ohtani will be the first player in MLB history to have a 50-50 season.
But I think it's a fair question to ask whether a full-time DH should ever be considered the most valuable player in the league. Never playing defense means a player limits the value they can provide their team, especially an athlete as great as Ohtani. It also prevents other players from DHing, which limits a teams ability to make lineup decisions. All of this will surely be overlooked by MLB and baseball writers, who want to promote Ohtani as the face of the game and his season as historic.
While Ortiz wasn't exactly the level of player Ohtani currently is, I think he does have a point about how Ohtani is being given special treatment by MLB and the media.