Question of the week: Who is your first-half MVP?

[Brock Beauchamp]

I chose the top position players by fWAR, then the top starting pitchers also by fWAR. If there was an outstanding reliever in WPA, I also included them. Relievers don't get enough love, particularly non-closers.

With that said, who is your 2025 first-half MVP?

[Orgfiller]

Probably would give Little a shout out on the RP side of things. To me it's gotta be Kirk, that kind of excellence on both sides of the plate (literally and figuratively) has been a driving force on the team. Catchers as a whole with Heineman leveraging his BABIP luck and excellent defense have been providing legitimately MVP level production.

Ernie a close second with his overall contribution. Slight edge goes to Kirk for doing it as a catcher.

[John_Havok]

I'm more leaning towards a guy not on this list... George Springer. Yeah, his fWAR is taking a dump due to his defense, but his bat rebounding to where it's at has been sooooooo very needed on this team since Vlad continues to slap singles and Santander has been an injury train wreck thus far

Also agree with Org that Little deserves more love, yes he's struggling with the walks recently, but he's still a swing/miss machine

It's incredible right now the Jays catching tandem is 2nd in the majors at 4.4 fWAR. That would normally be way out in front except for Raleigh channelling his inner Barry Bonds so far (Raleigh 5.4 fwar, Garver 0.0 fWAR). 130 wRC+ paired with league leading defense for the Jays catchers.