Cleveland Indians: 4 candidates for Cleveland’s 2021 MVP

Amed Rosario, SS, Cleveland Indians

There’s been no questioning Amed Rosario‘s impact on the Cleveland Indians season in 2021. While he might not be leading as many offensive stats as Ramirez, Rosario’s impact has been amplified. Even though Ramirez has the better stats in most categories, Ramirez has been having a down year while Rosario is impressing.

On the year, Rosario is batting a team-high .286 with a .325 on-base percentage and .418 slugging percentage. He’s also been able to tally six triples, tied for the most in the American League. Completing his stat line, Rosario has 22 doubles, 10 home runs and 49 RBI.

With Rosario there’s obviously a bit of recency bias. He put up an incredible month of August that turned heads around the game and nearly single-handedly put him in this conversation. However, even before August Rosario was one of the better performing bats in the lineup.

If you remove his August stats, Rosario was still slashing .264/.310/.378 with 14 doubles and six home runs. Those aren’t as impressive, but they are still among some of the better stats for the team offensively. The month of August served as his coming out party, but he was steady leading up to then.

If he the team’s MVP? Maybe. He has a case, but it’s hard to overcome Jose Ramirez. Has Rosario been a big part of the offense, regardless? Absolutely.