Mid-August in the National League and there are two players nobody wants to bet against for MVP: Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs and Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers. MLB’s own account put the question to its followers on August 14th — who’s your NL MVP favorite right now? — and the debate took off immediately. The answer isn’t as obvious as it looks.
The Crow-Armstrong Case: The Leap Nobody Saw Coming
Crow-Armstrong entered 2026 with an elite-prospect label and immediately ran with it. The Cubs haven’t had a player who impacts the game in every single dimension at the same time in years, and that’s exactly what PCA has become. His defense in center field ranks among the best in the league, and at the plate he’s made the jump from «promising» to «genuine threat.»
What makes him a serious MVP candidate isn’t one flashy number — it’s the accumulation. A high WAR through August, measuring how many wins he adds above a replacement-level player, stacked on top of offensive production that keeps him near the top of multiple NL leaderboards. For MVP voters, that kind of complete contribution is hard to dismiss.
The Ohtani Case: When the Argument Is Just… History
Shohei Ohtani is the kind of player who reshapes the MVP conversation simply by stepping into the lineup. In what has been his first full season as a pure hitter with the Dodgers — following his elbow surgery — he’s proven he doesn’t need the mound to be the most valuable player in any league. He already owns an AL MVP (2021) and has another one in his sights, this time on the National League side.
Ohtani leads or ranks inside the top five in NL OPS in 2026, which in plain terms means he’s combining the ability to get on base with the ability to hit for power better than almost any other hitter in the league. His MVP pitch is the easiest one to make in any press room: he puts the stadium on its feet every single at-bat.
The question isn’t whether Ohtani is great. The question is whether that greatness is enough to top someone like Crow-Armstrong, who can change a game with his glove just as easily as with his bat.
What Each Guy Needs to Lock It Up
In baseball, the August MVP doesn’t win the November trophy. What happens in September — when teams are playing under playoff pressure — carries enormous weight with voters. Both the Cubs and the Dodgers are in the NL postseason conversation, so both players will have those final weeks to make their case.
- For Crow-Armstrong: Keep the offensive pace and keep being the center fielder who doesn’t let anything drop. If the Cubs win the division or fight their way into a Wild Card spot, his story as the engine of that team becomes impossible to ignore.
- For Ohtani: The argument is easier to articulate but no less demanding — he needs to remain the best hitter in the league when the calendar gets tight. MVP voters, the credentialed baseball writers who cast ballots, tend to reward the player they feel was truly indispensable to his team’s success. That’s where this race gets decided.
As of August 14th, both have a real shot. In six weeks, one of them is going to have the cleaner argument. And that’s the one who wins.
