Former Cubs fan favorite Nick Castellanos has a wild take on who deserved NL MVP

The unanimous 2024 National League MVP? Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani who, in his first season in the City of Angels, turned in a 9.2 bWAR season - becoming baseball's first-ever 50/50 player en route to a World Series championship.

He did this without ever setting foot on the mound, as he continued to recover from Tommy John surgery. If he stays healthy in his return to pitching in 2025, we could see him make a run at being baseball's first 12-WAR player in nearly half a century.

But none of that matters to former Chicago Cubs and current Philadelphia Phillies slugger Nick Castellanos - at least not in terms of last year's MVP race.

"If you’re looking at the MVP as having the most weight on creating wins for your team, there’s no other player that has had that much weight as Jose Iglesias," Castellanos said. "With him being able to come in and bring that Latin spark, knocked the ice off of [Francisco] Lindor, finally got [Mark] Vientos probably comfortable to be able to be an everyday third baseman. And now a bunch of guys that looked like they had no direction … in the beginning of the year — they made the playoffs [and] got to where they did while the whole Mets organization had the ‘OMG’ signs everywhere from in the city to [in] the stadium. ... "The way I look at baseball, Jose Iglesias is [the] unanimous National League MVP."

Jose Iglesias may have single-handedly turned the Mets' season around after New York got off to a 28-37 start through June 11, when they were a season-high 17 1/2 games back in the NL East. They may not have brought home a division title, but the Mets went 61-36 from that point on, with the veteran infielder stepping up in a big way.

He played in only 85 games but still put up 3.1 bWAR on the year - the best single-season performance of his career. Oh, and he did it after not making the big-league roster out of camp, going to Triple-A to improve defensively - and as a veteran in his mid-30s, he put his head down and worked, earning a call-up back to the Big Apple and the rest is history.

Castellanos' point is valid - in terms of Iglesias' impact both on the field and in the clubhouse. He was the glue guy for this team and the Mets probably don't turn it around and make the postseason without him. Unfortunately, that's not how voting for MVP goes: it's an honor bestowed on who the BBWAA writers see as the best player in each league.

And, without a doubt, Ohtani was that guy in the Senior Circuit last season. But, hey, at least some things never change: Castellanos continues to keep things lively, just like he did during his few months on the North Side.