If you’ve ever gotten an autograph from someone who has won an MVP Award, you know that -- until they make the Hall of Fame, anyway -- they love to sign their name with an “MVP” at the end. And why wouldn’t they? If you had won an MVP in your career, wouldn’t you do that? Even if you’ve won only one, you get to call yourself an MVP forever.
But you do have to get one. And over the last few years -- thanks to what Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge keep doing -- that has proven increasingly difficult to pull off. It has led to some truly great players, players who are certainly of MVP quality, who don’t have an MVP yet and thus need to take advantage of every opportunity they can. (Particularly since neither Ohtani nor Judge look like they’re slowing down.)
You can’t win an MVP in the first 10 percent of the season. But there’s an argument to be made that you can lose one. Here, then, is a look at eight great players whom we’ve all imagined would win an MVP someday but still haven’t ... and whether they’ve put themselves in position to make a run in 2026, or if they’re already behind the eight-ball.
All stats are entering Monday’s games.
Well on their way
Yordan Alvarez, Astros
It was a nightmare 2025 for Alvarez, who played only 48 games and put up the weakest numbers of his entire career, across the board. He hit only six homers last year! While his team’s starting pitching has a long way to go to get the Astros back in contention, Alvarez is more than doing his part, looking very much like his old self. He ranks second in all of baseball with a 1.255 OPS and already has six homers, matching last year’s total. It’s always going to be a little bit of a challenge for Alvarez, as a DH, to win an MVP (he has finished in the top five only once in his career), but considering his OBP is currently at .500, the bad vibes of 2025 are long in the rearview mirror.
Corbin Carroll, D-backs
The Diamondbacks as a team aren’t hitting all that well right now -- at least not for power -- but Carroll is back up to his old tricks, with a Major League-leading three triples so far and an average over .300 for the first time in his career. Remember, in his NL Rookie of the Year season in 2023, Carroll finished fifth in NL MVP voting, the only time he has reached the top five. But he’s still only 25 years old, and, coming off his first 30-30 season, if he can become that sort of .300 hitter, it could be the next step that launches him into perpetual MVP contention.
Gunnar Henderson, Orioles
Henderson looked like he was well on his way to multiple MVPs after the 2024 season, when he finished fourth in the AL voting (after finishing eighth in his AL Rookie of the Year season in 2023). But he fell prey to the same organizational malaise that enveloped the entire Orioles team in 2025, having a good year but hardly a superstar one; his OPS fell a full 106 points from 2024. But he’s off to a torrid start in 2026, tied for the AL lead in homers with six and even stealing three bases; could this be his first 30-30 season? The Orioles look primed to contend this year, and Henderson is their best player. Imagine what his numbers will look like when Pete Alonso gets going hitting behind him.
Bobby Witt Jr., Royals
Here’s a wild stat: Witt has scored just one run so far, despite a .371 OBP and MLB-high eight steals. Yes, his power numbers are down so far, but the Royals offense also just isn’t getting anything done outside of him. That doesn’t mean Witt isn’t still well positioned for an MVP run, though, for two reasons. One, he’s hitting balls incredibly hard; he’s just catching all sorts of bad luck. But even more exciting are those eight steals. If he gets back to stealing 40-50 (maybe more!) bases while hitting like we know how Bobby Witt Jr. can hit, and playing stellar defense, he looks like the MVP winner he nearly was when he finished second in 2024.
Work left to do
Manny Machado, Padres
Is it too late for Machado? Did he miss his window? He has finished in the top 20 of MVP voting eight times, and second as recently as 2022, but he has sputtered out of the gate in 2026, hitting just .213 with only four extra-base hits. He’s still productive -- he leads the Majors in walks -- but he has never been known for that sort of extreme batting eye, and besides, no one (who isn’t Barry Bonds) wins MVPs for walks anyway. This is Machado’s 15th year in the Majors. He’s signed through 2033, so he’ll have some more chances. But right now, he looks like a potential Hall of Famer who may reach Cooperstown without an MVP Award to boast about on his plaque.
Julio Rodríguez, Mariners
Again, he’s only 25, so there is plenty of time for J-Rod to claim the MVP Award we’ve all assumed he’ll win -- and one I have personally picked him to win the last three seasons. But even for a famously streaky (and slow-starting) player like Julio, this is not the first two weeks that he wanted. He’s hitting .194 with only one homer -- even after back-to-back multi-hit games -- and he’s striking out a lot, even for him. He’ll come around, of course -- maybe he already is. But that season-long hot streak we’ve all thought he’d have one of these years? It doesn’t look like this is one of those years.
Juan Soto, Mets
He's 27 years old and has finished in the top 10 of MVP voting six times already -- a remarkable statistic. And he was off to a roaring start to this year, too … until the calf strain that will leave him out two to three weeks. Even if it’s only two weeks -- and that’s far from certain -- it’s just one more hurdle to win an MVP after spending time on the injured list. The presumption has always been that Soto will win many, many MVPs. But he has to win one first.
José Ramírez, Guardians
He’s forever the bridesmaid, finishing in the top 10 of MVP voting eight times, including in the top four on five occasions, but never breaking through. (In retrospect, he probably should have won over Jose Abreu in the shortened 2020 season.) The offseason extension Ramírez signed ensured that he’ll end his career in Cleveland, but he’s getting older, and despite the coolness of him becoming the first Cleveland player to homer against every other MLB team, he’s off to a slow-ish start, hitting only .180 in his first 16 games. You know he’ll come around, but that’s the thing about an MVP race, something he knows as well as anyone: It can get too late way too early.