Cincinnati Reds: Eugenio Suárez won’t get votes for MVP, but he should

Cincinnati Reds third baseman Eugenio Suárez missed 16 games this season and still leads the NL in RBIs. Suárez should get some MVP votes, but probably won’t.

Eugenio Suárez finally broke through with his first home run in 13 games yesterday during the Cincinnati Reds‘ 11-4 thumping of the San Francisco Giants. Suárez has 3 RBIs in his last 2 games and despite missing 16 games earlier this season, he is now leading the National League in that category. While Suárez likely won’t receive any votes for NL MVP, he should.

The National League has a plethora of talented position players and a couple pitchers who could take home this year’s MVP trophy. Javier Baez, Nolan Arenado, Freddie Freeman, and Matt Carpenter have all received MVP hype this season. Now, while all the hype around those guys is warranted, all these experts and pundits who’ve failed to mention Suárez in that same conversation are missing out on one of the truly fantastic performers of this MLB season.

Suárez has more home runs than Baez, a better slugging percentage than Freeman, more RBIs than Arenado, and a better batting average than Carpenter. Suárez is slashing .297/.378/.935 with 27 home runs and 91 RBIs. Did I mention that Suárez is doing all this while missing 16 games with a broken thumb earlier in the season?

So, why is Suárez not getting any love in the race for NL MVP? It’s pretty simple, the Cincinnati are in last place in the NL Central and for all intents and purposes, out of playoff contention. We saw the same thing last season with Joey Votto. Votto had a better on-base percentage, batting average, and OPS than last year’s winner Giancarlo Stanton. Stanton, however, muscled 59 balls over the fence and led the National League with 132 RBIs.

Suárez’s performance this season has been nothing short of amazing. Aside from 15 errors thus far on the season, Suárez has put up career-highs in just about every major category. He just signed a 7-year extension this past offseason and looks to be a big part of the Reds’ future. If Cincinnati can get back to contention in 2019, perhaps Suárez will get more hype for NL MVP if he turns in a similar performance.