At the start of this week, a look through one of the leading sports betting sites revealed 44 players on whom one could place futures wagers to win National League MVP.
The list began with Dodgers megastar Shohei Ohtani, of course, and included players from three NL Central teams — the Reds’ Elly De La Cruz, the Cardinals’ Jordan Walker and the Pirates’ Oneil Cruz and Paul Skenes — with better odds than any Cub. Down the line, among the 44, were Cubs Seiya Suzuki, Ian Happ and Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Nowhere to be found: the Cubs’ best player from the jump, Nico Hoerner.
That changed by the time the smoking-hot Cubs were beating the Reds in walk-off fashion Tuesday for the second night in a row at Wrigley Field. Hoerner’s name had shown up toward the middle of a 45-man list, with the same longshot odds — +10000 — as the Brewers’ Jackson Chourio, the Dodgers’ Kyle Tucker and the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr.
Perhaps a second baseman who merely leads a first-place team in hits, doubles, total bases, RBI and WAR and rolls out of bed slinging Gold Glove-caliber leather — but doesn’t pile up home runs — simply has no place and no shot in an admittedly way-too-soon MVP conversation.
Then again, an MLB.com poll of 40 “experts” came out this week, with Hoerner landing behind Ohtani, De La Cruz, the Braves’ Matt Olson and the Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll in fifth. So his elite play isn’t going unnoticed.
Given the Cubs’ 13-game Wrigley winning streak entering Wednesday and their 17-3 overall romp since a 7-9 start, it seemed like a fine time to ask around about who is “the man” on a team with a long list of guys playing well.
“Can you write ‘the whole team’?” catcher Carson Kelly wanted to know.
Sorry, that’s not how this works.
“OK, Nico,” Kelly said. “I would say Nico just from all sides of the ball — defense, base running, hitting, the leadership he brings and being the guy who posts every day. That goes a long way.”
Outfielder Michael Conforto did not hesitate.
“It’s got to be Nico,” he said. “In every facet of the game — the running game, defensively, clutch hitting, shown some power — he’s been the most consistent presence for us.”
The Dodgers, Conforto’s team last year, talked about Hoerner often, he said.
“I think guys all around the league talked a lot about Nico and just the presence he has on the field,” Conforto said. “We talked about how undervalued and underestimated this guy was. Those are the conversations I remember having about Nico. Being his teammate and being around him every day, I can see what he brings to the team and the game every day is extremely valuable. Maybe baseball just can’t really quantify it yet — maybe they don’t have it weighted correctly with stats — but he puts so much pressure on the other team in all facets of the game and is so overlooked.”
A couple of Cubs pitchers were hemmed in at their lockers for their takes on this important matter.
“Everyone’s good,” Edward Cabrera said via an interpreter. “It’s too difficult a question to answer. I can’t pinpoint one guy.”
“I’m going to be biased toward a pitcher,” Ben Brown said. “Shota Imanaga. That’s my guy right there.”
Note to self: Don’t ask pitchers these things.
The Cubs already cast a big vote of sorts by extending Hoerner’s contract for six years at $141 million after a couple of years of speculation that they might trade him. He has become the backbone of the lineup, and they know it.
But a walk across the field to the visiting dugout had to be made for Hall of Fame-bound Reds manager Terry Francona’s point of view. If anyone would appreciate Hoerner’s style of play, it would have to be Tito, right?
“Not when you’re trying to beat him,” Francona said, spitting for emphasis.
“Listen, Nico Hoerner is a good player,” he went on. “Runs the bases, makes contact, plays defense. He’s a baseball player. It’s pretty evident.”
But is Hoerner someone who could be in the running for an MVP?
“That’s not how you build your team,” Francona said. “You build your team to win. You build it with guys who’d rather win than be MVP, and he looks like one of them.”