Let’s start this article by talking about Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber is awesome, and this year he’s put up a .275/.373/.558 line. That’s really good, and a .931 OPS/153 wRC+ is good for 10th among all hitters in baseball with 160 PA. Incredible, right?
Well, Anthony Rizzo is 9th. That’s right: as incredible as Schwarber has performed this season, Rizzo has been better over 535 PA. His .291/.400/.541 is good for a 156 wRC+, and that’s good for 4th in the NL. No player ahead of him is making the playoffs (Harper, Votto, Goldschmidt). His 25 HRs are good for 5th in the league; no player ahead of him is making the playoffs (Harper again, Arenado, Carlos Gonzalez, Frazier). His 77 RBIs are 5th again in the NL; only McCutchen ahead of him is making the playoffs. He’s even 17th in stolen bases. The cool thing about it all is he’s done it with just an average BABIP (.296); everyone ahead of him has a BABIP of .353 or higher. All of this puts Rizzo in the conversation; one thing puts him ahead of everyone else.
3rd place in WPA for the NL is 4.77 (Kris Bryant!!!). 2nd place is Paul Goldschmidt (5.38). 1st is Anthony Rizzo, with a mind-boggling 6.52! The gap (1.14) between #1 and #2 is the gap between #2 and #6 (Bryce Harper). It’s important to realize that there is a massive difference in opportunity for Rizzo (and Bryant) over the other players: if your team stinks, you can’t really get that many opportunities to notch positive WPA.
That being said, the MVP stands for Most Valuable Player. Anthony Rizzo has, by at least one measure, provided more value (in the currency of win probability added) than any other player in the entire MLB.