The 2024 AL & NL Most Valuable Player awards, as it stands, appear to be heading back to Aaron Judge for the second time and Shohei Ohtani for the third time in four years. However, the MVP race might not be as clear cut as the numbers are making it out to be thanks to two shortstops who are making a strong push for the end-of-year award.

Jake Mintz & Jordan Shusterman talk about how a monster season from Bobby Witt Jr. has helped propel the Kansas City Royals into a postseason position and how Francisco Lindor is just performing at the dish, but in the field, and why those two guys might force baseball writers to think twice before giving their votes to Judge and Ohtani. They also talk about why the NL MVP Award race is a little closer than the AL and why Witt would win the NL MVP easily if he played in that league.

Also on this episode of the Baseball Bar-B-Cast, Jordan gives his field report after attending the Cleveland Guardians and Royals doubleheader on Tuesday and how the Kansas City offense tends to pick up their pitchers when they’re struggling. The guys then go around the league discussing the potential return of Jacob deGrom, Nick Castellanos’s funny postgame press conferences and why on earth the Los Angeles Angels had a 90-minute players meeting.

(2:35) - Judge vs Witt Jr.

(14:49) - Ohtani vs Lindor

(24:57) - Guardians/Royals field report

(30:08) - Going around the league

(55:07) - ’24 White Sox champions?

(58:40) - Fantasy football team draft

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🐦 @CespedesBBQ: https://twitter.com/CespedesBBQ

📷 @CespedesBBQ: https://www.instagram.com/cespedesbbq

⚾ @Jake_Mintz: https://twitter.com/Jake_Mintz

🧢 @J_Shusterman: https://twitter.com/j_shusterman_

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Subscribe to Baseball Bar-B-Cast on your favorite podcast app:

🎧 Apple Podcasts

🎧 Spotify

🖥️ YouTube

📢 Check out the Yahoo Sports podcast network or yahoosports.tv

And check out Jake, Jordan & the show on X or Instagram:

🌤️ @CespedesBBQ: https://bsky.app/profile/cespedesbbq.bsky.social

🐦 @CespedesBBQ: https://x.com/CespedesBBQ

📷 @CespedesBBQ: https://www.instagram.com/cespedesbbq

⚾ @Jake_Mintz: https://x.com/Jake_Mintz

🧢 @J_Shusterman: https://x.com/j_shusterman_