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An MLB analyst recently narrowed down the NL MVP race that includes names such as Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Fernando Tatis Jr., Kyle Schwarber, and Corbin Carroll. For their scintillating play early on, the five-pack has been trimmed to Ohtani and Tatis Jr. as the early favorites to win MLB's most prestigious individual award for the regular season.
MLB pundit Alden Gonzalez lauded the efforts of both Fernando Tatis Jr. and Shohei Ohtani to begin this year but gave a slight edge to the Padres superstar. However, he made it clear that Ohtani still has many tricks in his playbook that will enable him to win back-to-back MVP awards.
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"Right now, given the way that he's playing — I'm going to go with Tatis," said Gonzalez. (39:14-39:16)
Gonzalez shared his thoughts on the episode of the "Friar Territory" podcast about how things are clicking for the outfield superstar so far.
"It seems as if Tatis has been in our lives for a long time, he hasn't truly reached his potential yet. Look at [him] now, I think we're seeing god-mode Tatis." (38:44-38:59)
At the time of writing, Fernando Tatis Jr. is batting at an absurd .308/.383/.560 clip with an OPS of .943. He has also tallied 11 home runs, 26 RBIs, five doubles, and a triple to power the high-octane San Diego Padres offense.
Although Gonzalez praised the season that Tatis was having, he noted that a superstar such as Shohei Ohtani can suddenly find a different gear to bolster his bid for MVP.
"It's weird to pick anybody to win MVP that's not named Shohei Ohtani. Especially because he's probably going to still pitch this year." (39:05-39:12)
Padres media personality lauds Fernando Tatis Jr. for amazing start to season
In the same episode of the Friar Territory podcast, Padres media personality Kyle Glaser sang Fernando Tatis Jr.'s praises for the season that the latter is having.
"I think the MVP race will come down to Tatis and Ohtani. One of the things that I think people forget because he's been around for so long, [Tatis] is in his age 26 season," Glaser said. (39:20-39:27)
"He's just now hitting his prime and we're just seeing the best version of [him] yet. [He's] hitting for average, hitting for power, running wild on the bases, making great defensive plays in right field and gunning runners down at the plate. We've seen him do all these things at various points but he's doing it to a level we haven't seen before." (39:28-39:43)
Fernando Tatis Jr. currently has a bWAR of 3.1 through 40 games. To put it into context, he generated 2.6 bWAR last season when he was selected as an All-Star and 6.6 bWAR in 2021 when he finished third in the NL MVP rankings. Things are certainly looking up for the Padres' right field star.
