Josh Donaldson says MVP has to be a winner

Every player in Major League Baseball is eligible to win the MVP award, but what exactly does valuable mean?

Defending American League MVP Josh Donaldson would certainly like to add another one to the mantle. With a .290/.405/.564 line, 34 home runs, and 92 driven in, Donaldson has to be in the conversation for MVP again this year. Apparently, he would like the conversation to be a lot more exclusive.

To be MVP, Donaldson told Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball, “You gotta win.”

Donaldson elaborated, “Don’t get me wrong, Trout and Altuve are both great payers, but that’s my idea of valuable.”

Of course Donaldson feels this way. If the conversation around the award is only allowed to include winners, he has a much better shot at winning for a second year in a row.

If it were up to Donaldson, the only contenders for the 2016 AL MVP award would be Mookie Betts and Manny Machado, of course, dependent on their teams’ respective final places in the standings. Betts’ Boston Red Sox currently lead Donaldson’s Toronto Blue Jays by a game in the race for the AL East crown, while Machado’s Baltimore Orioles are a game behind the Jays and currently hold the second AL wild-card spot.

Altuve would be left out of the conversation despite the fact that he has essentially carried the Houston Astros all season. If he stays hot in September, Altuve will have a 30-30 season. He has found a remarkable power stroke this season after never hitting more than 15 home runs in a single season.

Remarkably, Altuve is batting nearly .400 on the road, and will easily claim his second AL batting title. The Astros are barely hanging on in the wild-card race despite having spotty pitching all season long. Swap Houston’s and Toronto’s rotations, and the Astros would be running away with the AL West.

Trout outpaced Donaldson in most major offensive categories last season — OBP, slugging percentage, WAR, isolated power, and OPS+. For context, Trout’s OPS+ of 176 against Donaldson’s 152, is a massive gap in production. This year, Trout’s Halos have limped to a likely fourth-place finish, due to injuries to most of their key starting pitchers.

Still, Trout is possibly having the best season of his career. He has an OPS over 1.000 for the first time in his career, is still stealing bases, and leads the league in walks and on-base percentage. Trout is 1.5 WAR clear of second-place Betts according to Baseball-Reference. Donaldson ranks fourth in the American League, over 2.0 WAR behind Trout.

The antiquated notion that the MVP has to come from a playoff team needs to end. Trout cannot control whether or not his teammates’ elbows fall off. Altuve cannot pitch and play second base at the same time. Donaldson’s Blue Jays are in contention not only because he has played great baseball, but because their pitching rotation has exceeded even the wildest expectations.

With so many better, smarter ways to define the league’s best player, it’s far past time to ditch the outdated belief that wins and losses somehow determine which hitter had the best season.