Just Because You Hit .400 Doesn’t Mean You Should Automatically Win The MVP Award
Luiz Arraez is a freak and the best hitter in baseball right now. We're over 60 games into the season and he's still flirting with .400. After Tuesday's games he is batting .401 to go along with a .451 OBP and is slugging .495% for an OPS of .946. He has 85 hits in 57 games, which is incredible, especially in today's age where a lot of players are 3 outcome guys. He has only struck out 11 times all season, has 19 walks, and virtually no power with only 1 home run. But he's a hitting MACHINE.
Now obviously .400 is a legendary number that no one has sniffed in Major League Baseball since Ted Williams and his .406 in 1941. We've had a few guys in the Negro Leagues do it since Williams as well, that should be noted. Which has led to the question "Should a player automatically win MVP if he hits .400?"
I think the answer is no. No player should automatically get an MVP trophy for hitting .400. Is it going to be insanely impressive if he ends up at .403 at the end of the year? Of course. But you can be a great hitter, the best in the league, and not be MVP. I don't think .400 justifies throwing out everything else other players do at the plate, on the base paths, and in the field that automatically makes him the most VALUABLE player, especially on a team that isn't very good.
Will he win MVP if that happens? He may. You knowwwww the voters will be enthralled by it and I think the fact that we haven't seen an MLB player come close to .400 since Tony Gwynn hit .394 in the strike-shortened 1994 season will have voters throwing their votes at him. And that is fine. But I still don't think he should a 100% be a shoo-in for it.
Let's say Ronald Acuña Jr. ends up hitting 30 bombs, stealing 45 bases, hits .330, has an OBP of .410, and an OPS of around 1.000 as the Braves comfortably finish first in their division above Arraez's Marlins....Will hitting .400 take precedent over that monster season? What if Freddie Freeman or Mookie Betts turn put up monster numbers during another dominant Dodgers season? Does Arraez get MVP over them just because he will be the first person with a .400 average on the back of his baseball card in more than 80 years? I'd hope not.
It would be a hell of a season, but that doesn't make him the most valuable player just because he hits .400 on a meh team that will finish right around .500 and likely won't sniff the playoffs. The MVP usually ends up with the best player on the best team, which is why Acuña Jr, Freeman, Mookie, guys like that will be there in the end. Great player, great hitter, no chance he should be handed the MVP just because he hits .400.