As Major League Baseball sprints into the final two weeks of the regular season, playoff races are hot. So are the conversations about individual awards, with MVP and Cy Young votes being considered all over the National and American Leagues.
As is the case every year, there are players who won’t receive a lot of votes for the top awards at their respective positions despite having terrific individual seasons. Some players are steady and have been excellent for a while, so they might be taken for granted in smaller markets. Others have emerged as bona fide stars on teams with bigger names getting more headlines.
Here are five players who deserve more of your attention and appreciation as the MLB season inches closer to its final games.
José Ramírez, Cleveland Guardians
Ramírez might be the most taken-for-granted player of this generation. A six-time All-Star with four Silver Slugger Awards at home, he’s finished in the top three for the American League MVP three times previously. But he isn’t getting much mention this year despite the Guardians leading the Central Division for almost the entire season.Ramírez is only the second third baseman in MLB history to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season twice, joining Howard Johnson. He’s the first third baseman to join the 30–30 club since David Wright in 2007 and only the fourth to reach the benchmark in both categories in the same season as a third baseman. His 5.9 WAR ranks ninth in all of Major League Baseball entering Wednesday.
Matt Chapman, San Francisco Giants
After struggling offensively in Toronto for two seasons, it raised some eyebrows when Chapman made the move to the National League for the first time before this season. But the 31-year-old had rebounded to have a strong season for a mediocre Giants team that’s 10 games out of a wild card berth.Chapman’s 6.8 WAR ranks seventh in MLB and second in the National League behind only Shohei Ohtani. And he’s doing that while playing his usually exceptional defense at third base; his 2.3 defensive WAR ranks fifth in Major League Baseball.
Anthony Santander, Baltimore Orioles
Quick question: How many American League hitters have more than Santander’s 41 home runs entering Wednesday? The answer is one: Aaron Judge. Santander has a career-high OPS+ of 133 (for a season in which he’s appeared in at least 100 games) and has already tied his career-high with 95 runs batted in.On an Orioles team where Gunnar Henderson has been in the MVP conversation all year with Baltimore chasing a playoff spot, Santander ranks second on the team with 145 games played and leads the squad in home runs and RBI. He also ranks second on the Orioles in runs scored (85) and total bases (284), trailing only Henderson in all four categories.
Hunter Greene, Cincinnati Reds
While headlines are loaded with the National League Cy Young debate between Atlanta’s Chris Sale and Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes—and rightfully so—it’s easy to sleep on the ace of a team that isn’t in the playoff race. But Greene is having a magnificent season in Cincinnati. According to Baseball Reference, Greene ranks third in all of Major League Baseball in WAR for Pitchers (5.7), behind only Sale and Detroit’s Tarik Skubal (the AL front-runner for the Cy Young Award).
On a team that enters Wednesday four games under .500 and 13.5 games back of the Central Division-leading Brewers, Greene has somehow quietly gone 9–4 with 162 strikeouts in 143.1 innings pitched. He’s already tied his career-high of 24 appearances/starts this season, and his 2.83 ERA and 1.019 WHIP are significant improvements from his first two major league seasons.
Cole Ragans, Kansas City Royals
If Greene’s season is being taken for granted because his team isn’t in the playoff race, there’s no good reason to sleep on Ragans. The 26-year-old lefty enters Wednesday second in all of Major League Baseball with 217 strikeouts (behind only Sale) and leads MLB with 31 starts. After a tough start to his career in Texas, Ragans found his game in Kansas City and became a dominant front-of-the-rotation starter.Ragans leads the American League with 10.8 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched, and his 4.5 WAR ranks ninth in MLB. He appeared in his first All-Star Game this summer.
