Post by dougiejays on Mar 3, 2020 12:08:40 GMT -5
Matt Winters doesn’t have time for your MVP talk.
“I’m just swinging it like I always have,” he says. “Guess I’ve been making some good contact this year.
Good contact is right. Toronto’s thirty-year-old catcher-cum-centerfielder has 23 homers through 73 games, putting him on pace to hit close to fifty over a full season. While Winters has always been known as a power hitter, he’s never hit more than 30 in a season before, and could reach his career high by the All-Star break. And if the power wasn’t enough, he’s also hitting a career-high .303. Winters snuck onto the AL All-Star team last year as a reserve, but if there was any question whether he deserved that selection it’s been put to rest this year. Anything but being voted in as the AL’s starting center fielder would have to be considered a major disappointment.
Last year it was third baseman Jack Clark who was Toronto’s MVP candidate, but while Clark still leads the league in on-base percentage, there’s little doubt that Winters has surpassed him as an offensive force. Winters currently leads the American League in slugging, OPS, homers, RBI, runs, and total bases. He’s also second in runs created to Seattle’s Pete O’Brien, who may be one of his only challengers in the MVP discussion halfway through the season.
Scouts say that Winters has always profiled as this sort of hitter. There hasn’t been a drastic change to his batted ball profile – it’s just that he’s finally living up to his potential and turning a few more pop-ups into home runs. It’s possible that being surrounded by emerging stars like Ron Gant and Gary Sheffield have forced pitchers to pitch to him, and the results have spoken for themselves.
Or perhaps Winters has grown more comfortable in his role as a center fielder. After a couple of years spent rotating between catcher, first base and DH, he was switched to center field full-time down the stretch last season, and has adapted well. He won’t win any gold gloves out there, but he has proven rangier than one might expect for a converted catcher and he doesn’t make a ton of errors – just 2 so far this season. (The weak arm that took him from behind the plate hasn’t translated particularly well to the outfield either, but the Jays can live with a noodle-arm center fielder when he’s the best hitter in the whole damn league.)
If one argues that the MVP should go to a player helping his team win, there’s little argument that the award is Winters’ to lose given his status as the best hitter on the team with the best record in the American League. Among other division leaders, Chicago’s best candidate is probably stolen-base maestro Rickey Henderson, while California’s success can be attributed to a resurgent season from 35-year-old Jason Thompson. But neither player has the sheer power numbers of Winters.
Numbers be damned, Winters insists he has other goals in mind.
“I’m more focused on winning the World Series than on winning MVP,” Winters says. “We got there last year but we couldn’t get over the hump, so I just hope our offense shows up in the playoffs this time.”