Nick Castellanos: Jose Iglesias should’ve won NL MVP over Shohei Ohtani

Nick Castellanos: Jose Iglesias should’ve won NL MVP over Shohei Ohtani

For the third time in four seasons, Shohei Ohtani took home the MVP award, this time in the National League in his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Better yet, 2024 marked the third time Ohtani won an MVP unanimously, winning the NL MVP over New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor and Diamondbacks infielder Ketel Marte. Though Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos suggested a different name for MVP, and it’s not who most would think.

“If you’re looking at the MVP as having the most weight on creating wins for your team, there’s no other player that has had that much weight as Jose Iglesias,” Castellanos said recently, according to Jomboy Media. “With him being able to come in and bring that Latin spark, knocked the ice off of [Francisco] Lindor, finally got [Mark] Vientos probably comfortable to be able to be an everyday third baseman. And now a bunch of guys that looked like they had no direction … in the beginning of the year — they made the playoffs [and] got to where they did while the whole Mets organization had the ‘OMG’ signs everywhere from in the city to [in] the stadium.

“The way I look at baseball, Jose Iglesias is [the] unanimous National League MVP.”

Nick Castellanos says that Jose Iglesias deserved to win NL MVP over Shohei Ohtani

“If you’re looking at the MVP as having the most weight on creating wins for your team, there’s no other player that has had that much weight as Jose Iglesias” pic.twitter.com/vifn4Btx5Z

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) January 13, 2025

I’m sorry … what?!?

Hearing Jose Iglesias and MVP in the same sentence wasn’t on my bingo card today, respectfully.

Iglesias, who turned 35-years-old on Jan. 5, played in only 85 games with the New York Mets last year. He played well, slashing .337/.381/.448 with four home runs, 26 RBIs and 17 additional extra-base hits. He struck out only 39 times in 291 plate appearances while drawing 12 walks.

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The veteran infielder was huge to the New York Mets’ locker room; you could argue that the Mets turn their season around and go on their long postseason run without his presence. It just goes to show that having players who are very good for the locker room–which is something that we on the outside aren’t privy to see–is quite important. Iglesias was definitely that with the “OMG” Mets rally cry.

But let’s make one thing clear: Shohei Ohtani one of the greatest, most unique players we’ll possibly ever see … and deserved NL MVP. Not Iglesias.

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