When assessing the awards races each season, usually the easiest place to start is to look at who won last year and assume the same superstars will be back in the mix atop each league. But considering the current status of each of last year’s major award winners, such an exercise isn’t so useful this time around.
AL MVP Shohei Ohtani is both no longer in the AL and currently only a DH, rather than the two-way sensation he was a year ago. NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. is out for the year following the second season-ending knee surgery of his career.