Crow-Armstrong and Ohtani Keep National League MVP Debate Alive as MLB Season Winds Down

With baseball’s final month of the regular season approaching, there still is an MVP race going on in the National League.

Most MLB insiders are in agreement that the potential winner of the MVP is narrowed down to Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.

Crow-Armstrong this season is arguably the best defensive center fielder in the league. His elite offense displayed in 129 games in 2026 clearly has Crow-Armstrong high up on the National League’s pedestal. Now, in only his third full season with the Cubs, Crow-Armstrong has 32 home runs (4th best in the NL), an off-the-chart .932 OPS, hitting .279, and 31 stolen bases (2nd best in the NL). As the quintessential leadoff man with Chicago this season, there are many similarities being drawn between Crow-Armstrong and Lenny Dykstra, the gritty outfielder of the 1980s and 1990s who put his body on the line each game, at any cost to ensure a victory.

Playing on the West Coast, and for a Dodgers club looking to win its third consecutive Worlds Series championship this fall, Ohtani’s next contributions to the club in the final four weeks of the regular season remain a mystery. Winner of the last two National League MVP awards, Ohtani has not thrown a pitch since his outing on July 3, a six-inning appearance against the San Diego Padres. Left knee soreness combined with right biceps discomfort is keeping the designated hitter/pitcher on the sidelines.

With 14 games pitched, Ohtani is 8–2, with a nasty 1.79 ERA. Put his pitching success with a hitting performance of 30 home runs, 80 RBIs, 133 hits, and hitting .291, and this more than likely has the Dodgers superstar as a shoo-in for his fourth consecutive MVP award, and fifth overall. Or, so some may think.

Should Ohtani make it back to Los Angeles’ starting rotation prior to the playoffs—and is as dominating as has been the case throughout his seven MLB campaigns, coupled with his power at the plate—the voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) will have an easier choice in who they select. This is a big question mark looming over Ohtani, 32.

Crow-Armstrong remains on cruise control with his bat. In Friday’s road clash with the Seattle Mariners, the speedy Cubs’ batter clubbed his team-leading 32nd round-tripper as the first batter Seattle’s starting pitcher Emerson Hancock faced.

On a daily basis at the ballpark, home and away, the MVP subject continues to consume Crow-Armstrong, with media members who are only too willing to increase comparisons between him and Ohtani. It’s also a subject he isn’t ducking from.

“I would be crazy to say that I don’t want to win an MVP but if we’re talking about having priorities straight, I think mine are pretty straight,” Crow-Armstrong said earlier this month. “It’s not on the forefront of my mind. It’s fun to joke about it and it’s fun to acknowledge. And I think it’s absolutely okay to pay attention to, but again, it’s not like following me up to the plate. And yeah, I think if you guys want to talk about all this back and forth, I really should go get in the lab and start pitching. I really should.”

Aside from conversations in the clubhouses and stadium press boxes on who is better on any given day this season, Crow-Armstrong and Ohtani have their teams’ overall standing in their divisions to concentrate on. While the Dodgers are 78–51 leading into Saturday night’s home contest with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and holding a commanding nine-game lead in the Western Division over the Padres, the Cubs have more of an uphill battle facing them in chasing the Central Division-leading Milwaukee Brewers. Although second-place Chicago is five games behind Milwaukee in the standings, they are the top Wild Card contenders by five games in the National League. However, should Crow-Armstrong experience an interruption in play due to injury, that significant lead for the Cubs could tank quickly.

All the possible scenarios associated with how the MVP race plays out in September have insiders picking sides.

“The National League MVP award could come down to simply whether Shohei Ohtani takes the mound again for the Dodgers. If Ohtani, who hasn’t pitched since July 3, returns to the mound, he’ll win his fifth MVP award. If Ohtani stays as a DH, and Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong continues to play like he has, he’ll become the first Cubs player to win the MVP since Kris Bryant in 2016,” predicts USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.

Perhaps both the Cubs and Dodgers’ remaining schedules will have an increased influence on the ultimate performances by Crow-Armstrong and Ohtani. With Chicago having 10 more division games, and three at home with the East-leading powerhouse Atlanta Braves, Cubs skipper Craig Counsell won’t have the luxury of resting his All-Star center fielder down the stretch. Securing a Wild Card slot remains paramount, should Milwaukee not collapse in the standings. The Dodgers have such a deep rotation that they don’t have to rush Ohtani, or pitch him at all.

Every game, every inning that Crow-Armstrong appears in or is absent from will be heavily scrutinized through next month. Once in MLB history, in 1979, there was a tie in voting for National League MVP honors (Willie Stargell and Keith Hernandez were co-winners). Could it happen again in 2026? There are four weeks remaining to sort out any difference of opinions among BBWAA voters.

Voting for MVP honors is completed at the end of the regular season, and before the start of the postseason. Players are evaluated over the 162-game schedule.