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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Will Laws and Nick Selbe

Checking In on the MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year Races

NL Manny Machado Shohei Ohtani Corbin Burnes Martín Pérez AL Goldy Jeremy Peña Mookie Betts Nestor Cortes, Jr.

Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning during the regular season you’ll get a fresh, topical story to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.

It feels like the season has only just begun, but just like that, we’re two months down. As the standings begin to take shape, now feels like a good time for an awards race check-in. There’s plenty of time for new names to emerge in contention for individual accolades, but to this point, here’s the group that’s taken an early lead.

Shohei Ohtani is not hitting as well as he did last year, but he doesn’t have to be at his best to be the most valuable player in the league.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports

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