This Dodger deserves MVP consideration

This story was excerpted from Juan Toribio’s Dodgers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

LOS ANGELES -- For a few months, it’s looked like Ronald Acuña Jr. had a pretty tight grip on the National League Most Valuable Player Award.

The Braves’ star is having a historic season and is on pace to hit close to 40 homers and steal almost 80 bases. If he reaches both of those numbers (he needs 15 homers and 29 stolen bases), he’ll likely take home his first NL MVP.

Freddie Freeman, however, is playing himself into the same conversation and is trying his best to make that decision very tough on voters. Yes, there’s still more than 50 games to go, but the type of season Freeman is having shouldn’t go unnoticed.

After hitting a casual .359 with seven homers in 23 games in July, Freeman is 10-for-14 with one homer and five doubles in three August games. This absurd stretch has Freeman among the league leaders in just about every offensive category.

“It’s just one of those stretches where you’re getting pitches and you’re not missing them,” Freeman told SportsNetLA after Thursday’s game. “I feel good up there obviously seeing the pitches and I'm putting good swings on them and they’re going forward.”

Freeman has 22 homers and is second in the Majors with a .341 batting average (behind Luis Arraez, of course). His 1.016 OPS, however, is now the best in the NL and second in the Majors behind Angels’ two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, who is about to make a lot of money this winter.

Just to add to Freeman’s long list of accomplishments already this season, which includes 300 career homers and 2,000 career hits, the Dodgers’ first baseman is the quickest player in franchise history to notch 40 doubles in a season. It took him just 107 games.

When the Dodgers signed Freeman to a six-year deal last spring, everyone knew how good the seven-time All-Star was. But Freeman has exceeded all of that and has been even better than advertised. Now the NL MVP conversation can’t start without mentioning Freeman’s name.

“I know Acuña is doing his thing over there, which is really impressive,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “We haven’t seen him a whole lot. But if you look at Freddie's ability to post, drive in runs, hit for average, slug, he’s definitely in the MVP conversation and Mookie [Betts] is not far behind.”