Who says starting pitchers shouldn't win MVP? Well, a lot of people do actually, considering their total body of work for a season in terms of games played only amounts to one-fifth of that of a position player. Then again, in their starts, they have the most responsibility on their shoulders in each and every outing. So there's definitely a debate to be had with legitimate reasons on both sides.
But I digress. The point here is that one sports book — Bovada — does expect deGrom to take home the National League MVP award, or they're at least setting their odds that way.
If you check out Bovada's full list of NL MVP candidates, you'll see that deGrom is the co-leader of the pack with San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. Here's the list of the top-five candidates with their stats on the season (via Bovada):
- Fernando Tatis Jr. (-120): 31 HR, 69 RBI, .293/.376/.658, 5.3bWAR
- Jacob deGrom (-120): 7-2, 146 K, 1.08 ERA, 5.0 bWAR
- Juan Soto (+1000): 18 HR, 58 RBI, .295/.420/.510, 3.9 bWAR
- Trea Turner (+1400): 18 HR, 49 RBI, .322/.369/.521, 4.1 bWAR
- Kris Bryant (+3300): 18 HR, 51 RBI, .269/.359/.508, 2.3 bWAR
As you can see, it's mainly a two-horse race, with a Nationals stars Juan Soto and Trea Turner hanging on and still in the mix. However, the statistical differences between Tatis and other NL hitters is profound. If those gaps in production are big, however, than deGrom's in comparison to other pitchers are astronomical. His 1.08 ERA is not only the best this year, but it's on track to be one of the greatest figures a starting pitcher has ever posted, currently besting Bob Gibson's famous 1.12 ERA from the 1968 "Year of the Pitcher." And though deGrom hasn't logged as many innings as some other studs around the senior circuit, including Phillies ace Zack Wheeler, his counting stats are still similar. deGrom doesn't even qualify for rate stats like strikeouts per nine innings pitched, but if he did, his figure of 14.3 would beat runner-up Corbin Burnes' 12.9 by a significant amount.
Not all sports books think that deGrom should be considered the favorite right now, however. FanDuel lists Tatis Jr. as the heavy favorite (-210) ahead of deGrom (+185). The same goes for DraftKings, with Tatis (-210) holding a large advantage over deGrom (+165). And ditto for BetMGM, though with not as large a discrepancy between Tatis (-165) and deGrom (+130).
Neither star is showing any sign of slowing down when on the field — with the caveat that deGrom needs to return to the rotation soon without any further health issues — so we'll see how this exciting race unfolds down the stretch.
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