Braves’ Marcell Ozuna is Quietly having a Spectacular Season

Marcell Ozuna hit his 37th home run of the season to lead the Atlanta Braves to a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Atlanta on August 20th. The victory brought the second place Braves to within six games of the front running Phillies in the N.L. East.

Ozuna is having an outstanding year at the plate for the Braves, and has a shot at baseball’s Triple Crown. Going into games of August 21st, Ozuna was leading the National League in hitting at .309 and leads in RBIs with 94. He was second in homers with 37, two behind Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers.

Ohtani is often mentioned as the leading candidate for N.L MVP, and with good reason. Ohtani is second in RBIs with 88, and second in stolen bases with 38. He could reach 50 homers and 50 stolen bases, something no major league player has ever done; only four have had a 40/40 season. He is currently hitting .291, sixth best in the N.L. but at this stage of the season where players batting averages don’t move a whole lot due to having so many at bats, he’s not likely to move his up to the top. Ohtani and Ozuna are 1st and 2nd in slugging percentage and OPS. If Ozuna does pull off the Triple Crown, and Ohtani gets his 50/50 season (along with all the rest of his high numbers), the MVP voters will have quite a task to pick one over the other. Oh, heck, if that’s the case have them be co-MVPs.