Masataka Yoshida (30)메이저사이트 of the Boston Red Sox was selected as the MVP dark horse candidate.
MLB.com, the official major league media outlet, said on the 4th (Korean time), “There are already strong MVP candidates such as Aaron Judge (Yankees), Shohei Ohtani (Angels), Mike Trout (Angels), Juan Soto (San Diego), and Mookie Betts (Dodgers). there is. But will any of the other players come to mind for the 2023 season? Experts have selected 5 dark horses,” he said, introducing 5 MVP dark horse candidates.
MLB.com selected Adley Luchman (Baltimore), Wander Franco (Tampa Bay), Corey Seager (Texas), and Byron Buxton (Minnesota) as hidden MVP candidates. mentioned as one.
Yoshida is a heavy hitter with a batting average of 302.7 (884 hits in 2703 at-bats), 133 homers, 467 RBIs, and an OPS of .960 in 762 Japanese professional baseball games. Last season, he played an active role in 119 games with a batting average of 3.35 li (138 hits in 412 bats), 21 homers, 88 RBIs, and an OPS of 1.008, leading Orix to the championship. Ahead of this season, he signed a five-year, $90 million (approximately 117.1 billion won) contract with Boston and succeeded in advancing to the major leagues.
“Maybe everyone doesn’t know what a perfect hitter Yoshida was in Japan,” said MLB.com, who emphasized Yoshida’s performance in Japan. Over his last five seasons, he has a .332 batting average, .427 on-base percentage, .546 slugging percentage, and .973 OPS, and has picked up more than twice as many strikeouts (96) and walks (201) over his last three seasons. If he can do this in the major leagues, he’s worthy of MVP.”
Baseball statistics sites are also predicting good results for Yoshida. MLB.com said, “Steamer (statistics website Fangraph’s performance prediction program) predicts that he will win the major league batting title and is second only to Juan Soto in on-base percentage, Pete Alonso (Mets), Rafael Devers (Boston), Ohtani, It was predicted that he would record a higher OPS than Ronald Acuna Jr. (Atlanta). ZiPS (Fan Graph Performance Prediction Program) also predicted that Yoshida would hit 20 homers along with the American League batting title.”
MLB.com, who mentioned, “If Yoshida achieves this kind of performance, it is a monster season,” emphasized that he is a suitable MVP candidate, saying, “And what if Yoshida surpasses them?