A funny thing about this year’s likely MVPs – none were valuable enough to push their teams into the postseason.
Shohei Ohtani, Bryce Harper, Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – all contenders for the individaual prize, and all set to watch from home while a champion is crowned.
Other big names remain – Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Jose Altuve and Aaron Judge are plenty familiar to fall audiences. Of course, they were all there last year, too, when Tampa Bay rookie Randy Arozarena stole the show.
Arozarena set postseason records with 10 homers and 29 hits, winning the AL Championship Series MVP, and made a wild scramble home to help the Rays push the Dodgers to six games in the World Series. It was a remarkable rise for a then-25-year-old who had just 42 regular-season games under his belt, propelling him from no-name rookie to a standout on baseball’s biggest stage.
Stars are cemented in October. Here are five budding ones that might stick in the spotlight this month: