Out of all the award races in Major League Baseball, the 2024 NL MVP is setting up to be the best of them all for the upcoming season. Not only is it filled with superstars top to bottom but there’ll be several players from the elite lineup of the Los Angeles Dodgers bidding for votes against each other. As we did with the AL, let’s take a look at the favorites to win in the National League.
Best Odds to Win 2024 NL MVP
Ronald Acuna Jr. (+500)
Since joining the league in 2018, Ronald Acuna Jr. has been nothing short of impressive. He won Rookie of the Year and finished top five in MVP voting the next season. Fast forward to 2023 and Acuna earns his first MVP award by hitting .337 while having 41 home runs and 106 RBI. What might be even more impressive is his incredible 73 stolen bases. He became the only player in MLB history to record 40-plus homers and 70-plus steals in a single season. Because of his historic campaign, he became the first unanimous NL MVP since Bryce Harper in 2015.
What Acuna Jr. did last season might be really hard to replicate but if anyone can do it, it’s him given he is just 26 years old in his prime years with this amount of talent. Leading off in an Atlanta Braves lineup that is stacked, he is the favorite to repeat as NL MVP. If he does so, he will be the first to repeat in the National League since Barry Bonds won four straight in 2001-2004.
Mookie Betts (+600)
Mookie Betts dominated the American League for years, winning an MVP in 2018 and finishing as a runner-up in 2016. He came over to the National League and picked up right where he left off. Betts hasn’t won an NL MVP but he’s come close, finishing top five three times, two of those being a runner-up. One of those years was last year, where he finished second by hitting a career-high 39 home runs and having 107 RBI.
Like Acuna Jr., Betts will be leading off every night, and with the amount of protection behind him in this loaded lineup, he has a real good chance to earn his first NL MVP in what is expected to be another Betts-like campaign.
Freddie Freeman (+900)
In 2020 with the Braves, Freddie Freeman won his first MVP award. Since being traded to the Dodgers for the 2022 season, he’s been close to winning it again but has just missed out in each of the last two seasons. He finished fourth in 2022, hitting 21 home runs with 100 RBI, and third last year, finishing with 29 home runs and 102 RBI.
Hitting in this lineup gives Freeman a chance to put up great numbers in 2024. He’s been a very durable player in his career and is just as dangerous as anyone at the plate, which heightens the Dodgers first baseman’s odds even more to win his second NL MVP, his first in a full-length season.
Shohei Ohtani (+950)
There’s simply no one like Shohei Ohtani. Not only is he a star at the plate but he can pitch too. That’s led to him winning the AL MVP with the Los Angeles Angels in 2021 and 2023 while finishing second in 2020 (finished fourth in Cy Young voting in 2020 as well). Last season he won the award unanimously, hitting 44 home runs with 95 RBI while going 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA in 23 starts.
The reason he doesn’t have the best odds heading into this season is that he will be available only as a hitter, having UCL surgery that prevents him from pitching in 2024. However, Ohtani’s bat alone is good enough to earn him his third MVP award but he will have stiff competition, with two other candidates being his teammates.
Fernando Tatis Jr. (+1000)
Fernando Tatis Jr. had a sub-par 2023 for his standards, hitting just .257 with 25 home runs and 78 RBI. With that being said, he did miss all of 2022 with suspension and injury. Now that he’s back in the swing of things, returning to his old self is a real possibility. He’s too talented not to.
In 2021, the year before his injury, he finished third for the MVP while hitting 42 home runs and driving in 97. That’s more of the Tatis Jr. that is expected to return and if so, 2024 could be his year to win, even with a log jam of other superstars at the top.
Next Best Odds:
Matt Olsen (+1200)
Bryce Harper (+1200)
Trea Turner (+2200)
Corbin Carroll (+2200)
Austin Riley (+2500)
Main Image: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
