Mookie Betts vs. Bryce Harper: Who Should Win 2024 National League MVP?

It all depends on one’s tastes. Chocolate or strawberry? Bobby Flay or Gordon Ramsey? Bat flips or Pete Rose spiking the ball after a big out in the 70s and 80s?

In this case: Mookie Betts vs. Bryce Harper for National League Most Valuable Player. 

Which brings up another question MVP voters are required to consider – value of the player’s contribution to team success against how dominant a player’s performance was in light of his team’s final finish.

Go back to 1987 for some context. 

That was the collusion offseason, when owners were bound and determined to freeze out free agents in the same way some WNBA players are taking out their collective frustrations on Caitlin Clark.

One might remember Andre Dawson’s agent, Richard Moss, basically imploring the Chicago Cubs to pay his sore-kneed client anything they wanted. For the hefty cost of $650,000, Chicago got an MVP season out of Dawson – 49 homers, 137 RBI – that probably got him inducted into Cooperstown in 2010.

And yet there are Cardinals fans today who will tell you that was the worst MVP selection ever. Ozzie Smith was at the peak of his powers, not just defensively, but offensively. Whitey Herzog remade him from an out with the Padres to the kind of pesky hitter suited for Busch Stadium.

Smith’s 1987 season, which saw him knock in 75 runs without a single homer, steal 43 bases and score 104 runs while playing his usual matchless defense, was the major reason St. Louis got within a Homerdome of a second World Series title in six years. But it wasn’t good enough to beat out Dawson for MVP.

That brings us to the question at hand. Betts has the numbers sabermetrics guys crave, plus the advantage of being a plus defender in the middle of the field. Betts has an on-base percentage 94 points higher than his batting average, hits for power and steals bases at a high rate of success.

If there’s a problem with Betts – and you have to really, really try to nit-pick to find one – it is that his seasons are so routinely great that voters might end up giving him the LeBron James treatment sometimes. They figure he wins enough of them that it’s not such a big deal if someone else gets one.

Besides that, the Dodgers are more loaded than Jeff Bezos. Betts has Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and criminally underrated Will Smith hitting behind him. Pitch around Betts and he’s probably going to score.

Which is where Harper enters the picture. The Phillies own the National League’s best record over Los Angeles by 3 ½ games. They have the league’s best run differential at plus 99.

Talk about Philadelphia’s starting pitching all you want – and it is top-shelf – but it’s Harper who fronts that lineup. Alec Bohm might be on pace for the outlier year of his career with 49 RBI in 60 games but it’s the fear of Harper that’s helping Bohm consistently hit with men in scoring position.

Add that Harper has quickly become one of the top defensive first basemen in the NL to his considerable offensive feats and you have a legitimate argument for his third MVP in 10 years.