It’s the eve of Election Day, and Shohei Ohtani has found himself on the ballot.
The NL MVP ballot, that is.
News broke on Monday that the Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way superstar was as one of three finalists for the 2026 National League Most Valuable Player Award, alonside Milwaukee Brewers infielder Brice Turang and Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Despite Ohtani’s well-documented struggles during the final few months of the regular season and the postseason, him advancing this far in the NL MVP race doesn’t come as a surprise.
But this announcement feels different from past years in one major way: Ohtani isn’t expected to win the award.
Instead, Crow-Armstrong (aka “PCA”) is the favorite to win the NL MVP, which could mean Ohtani’s streak of three-straight unanimous MVP Award wins (he has four MVP Awards overall) will come to an end — even though voting is based on regular-season performance and does not account for the postseason.
The stats show that PCA being the MVP favorite isn’t the byproduct of greatness fatigue with Ohtani.
The 24-year-old Cubs star had the advantage over Ohtani in WAR (9.8 to 6.5), home runs (45 to 30), batting average (.280 to .275), and every other noteworthy offensive stat aside from Ob-Base Percentage (OBP), where Ohtani had a slight edge (.377 to .372).
Crow-Armstrong is also widely regarded as the best defender in baseball, which will help his MVP case. Ohtani didn’t play in the field during 2026 aside from when he was on the mound.
Of course, Ohtani’s pitching prowess has been pivotal in him winning the past three MVP awards, the last two of which have been with the Dodgers.
But he was relegated to being mainly a hitter this past season, given several injuries he endured that limited him to 85.2 innings pitched during the regular season.
Ohtani’s last pitching appearance was against the San Diego Padres on July 3.
The 2026 NL MVP Award winner will be announced on November 12 on MLB Network at 4 p.m. PT.
Ohtani was the lone Dodger to finish in the top three in balloting for any of the five BBWAA Awards, which includes the MVP Award, the Cy Young Award, the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award, the Manager of the Year Award and the Reliever of the Year Award.
