Cool hands Luke has been mashing the baseball all season long.
Luke Voit dropped a fair amount of weight in the offseason, and it has paid dividends. With ten games left to play, Voit is batting .283 and has an OPS of 1.001, while leading the majors in homers (20) and is second in RBI’s (46). Including leading the American League in Slugging (.659). While the Yankee injuries kept piling up, Luke Voit has kept the team afloat with his bat. The Yankees now sit in the fifth seed and are only three games back in the division.
Luke Voit vs. Mike Trout
Mike Trout once again is having a great year while his team struggles. Giving the MVP to a player on a terrible team has always felt just wrong. The Angels center fielder hasn’t sniffed the playoffs since 2014 and hasn’t had a winning record since 2015. Trout is a three-time MVP, making the playoffs once out of those three seasons.
Trout this season is behind Luke Voit in some significant categories. Voit has a better WAR (1.7), more RBI’s, and Home Runs. Trout has a slight edge in batting average (.295), OPS (1.030), and OBP (.400).
Best Player or Most Valuable Player
The debate about whether MVP means the most valuable player or the best player is always heated, and it’s a conversation that is prominent in all four major American sports. Now, if we are talking, whose more valuable this season Voit or Trout. Voit’s team would surely not be in the playoffs if he wasn’t there, while the Angels would still suck if Trout was there or not. Here’s where things get interesting even if the conversation is who has been the best player; on the one hand, Voit leads all of baseball in Homers and is second in RBI’s. Even though Trout has a higher batting average, OPS, and OBP, he is not in the top five.
Who has had the better season? Trout is one of the games all-time greats that’s apparent, and it is fun to see where he ranks when it’s all said and done. However, in a shortened season, this is as good of a chance Voit will have to win an MVP award. Jose Abreu of the White Sox is making his mark on this season and could very well win MVP, but that’s a topic for another day. With the numbers, the MVP race has been as wide open as it’s been in recent years.
