NL MVP finalists reveal should prepare Dodgers fans to trade barbs with Mets

BBWAA awards finalists were announced on Monday night, and almost every name you'd expect to be there was there. The two most contentious races, and by far, will be NL Rookie of the Year between finalists Jackson Chourio, Jackson Merrill, and Paul Skenes, and NL MVP between Francisco Lindor, Ketel Marte, and Shohei Ohtani.

All respect to Marte, who had a fantastic .292 average, 36 homer, 95 RBI season — but this is Ohtani and Lindor's race.

Remember: awards voting closed before the postseason, so none of the nominees' October performances were taken into account. If they were, then we'd have to hand it Mets fans and Lindor; he hit .275 with a .877 OPS, two homers, and eight RBI in the postseason while Ohtani only hit .230 with a .766 OPS while playing through multiple injuries. Ohtani came dangerously close to entering his own Mookie Betts-esque conversation regarding postseason performance, but even though his World Series statline left a lot to be desired, he still ended up with more homers and more RBI in October than Lindor.

In any case, playoff performance doesn't count, so the arguments that have already been made in Ohtani's favor still stand. He had possibly the greatest DH season of all time, but there's still the possibility that his lack of position playing could tilt the scales in Lindor's favor in the voting. Mets fans certainly won't let anyone hear the end of it either way.

The Francisco Lindor-Shohei Ohtani debate was reignited by NL MVP finalists announcement. Sorry, Dodgers fans.

Ohtani hitting that 50/50 mark made his MVP bid a pretty open-and-shut case, but the Sept. 19 game when he reached the mark still deserves special mention. The performance also included two more homers and10 total RBI to score half of the Dodgers' runs on the night, as well as two stolen bases. He didn't just inaugurate the 50/50 club and then go quietly; he had one of the best individual games of all time. That's what MVPs do.

The only thing stopping Ohtani from running away with the honor is the fact that, aside from a few bouts of injury, Lindor played shortstop everyday for the Mets. To be fair, he did it very well, ranking in the 99th percentile of all qualified shortstops with 16 OAA. It did take a while for his bat to match the glove, though, so much so that he didn't even earn an All-Star appearance.

WAR will almost certainly come into play here, but both Baseball Reference and FanGraphs' metrics work out in Ohtani's favor. Ohtani ranks second and third respectively, while Lindor ranks sixth by both calculations.

The race still might be close, even if Ohtani has made a very clear case that the BBWAA should break from tradition and give a pure DH the award for the first time in history. Rest assured that Mets fans will rage either way.