![\"Phillies](\"https:\/\/dodgersnation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/USATSI_24590210_168396005_lowres.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIn one of the most ridiculous takes of the offseason, Philadelphia Phillies star Nick Castellanos believes Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani should not have been the unanimous National League Most Valuable Player in 2024.<\/p>\n
In fact, he doesn\u2019t even think Ohtani deserved to win the award.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Castellanos fully believes New York Mets second baseman Jose Iglesias should have won the award \u2014 not even Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, who finished second. Ohtani earned 423 points in the MVP voting, while Lindor garnered 263.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re looking at the MVP as having the most weight on creating wins for your team, there\u2019s no other player that has had that much weight as Jose Iglesias,\u201d Castellanos said of his former Tigers teammate. \u201cWith him being able to come in and bring that Latin spark, knocked the ice off of [Francisco] Lindor, finally got [Mark] Vientos probably comfortable to be able to be an everyday third baseman.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAnd now a bunch of guys that looked like they had no direction \u2026 in the beginning of the year \u2014 they made the playoffs [and] got to where they did while the whole Mets organization had the \u2018OMG\u2019 signs everywhere from in the city to [in] the stadium.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way I look at baseball, Jose Iglesias is [the] unanimous National League MVP.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Nick Castellanos says Jose Iglesias should\u2019ve won NL MVP pic.twitter.com\/gxRVbSWoO7<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Chris Rose Sports (@ChrisRoseSports) January 13, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n Castellanos didn\u2019t fully abandon Ohtani. He added that the two-way superstar is someone he would build his franchise around.<\/p>\n \u201cShohei Ohtani played a huge part in the Dodgers winning,\u201d Castellanos said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if he\u2019s the sole purpose of the Dodgers moving in one direction. That doesn\u2019t mean that what Shohei did isn\u2019t record-book worthy and he\u2019s not an amazing baseball player. If I\u2019m starting a team, I pick Shohei over Jose. There\u2019s no doubt about it. I\u2019m not stupid.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut the way that I saw baseball last year, with my eyeballs, Jose Iglesias is the National League MVP.\u201d<\/p>\n Signed to a minor league deal last offseason, veteran infielder Iglesias was called up by the Mets in late May and made an immediate impact, taking over the starting second base role and helping turn the team\u2019s fortunes around.<\/p>\n In 85 regular season games, Iglesias posted an impressive .337\/.381\/.448 slash line, hitting four home runs, driving in 26 RBIs, and scoring 39 runs, all while playing elite defense.<\/p>\n Iglesias\u2019 influence extended beyond his numbers, which is why Castellanos believes he should have been named MVP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In one of the most ridiculous takes of the offseason, Philadelphia Phillies star Nick Castellanos believes Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani should not have been the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n