Why Lewis Brinson and Justin Upton should have been the MVPs in 2019
As this year draws to an end, I thought we could take a moment to appreciate the real MVPs of the 2019 season. No, not Mike Trout and Cody Bellinger, whose winning of that award I can only describe as some kind of sick joke by the baseball writers. No, the real MVPs of 2019 were the titular Lewis Brinson and Justin Upton. Why? Well let's examine some facts.
**Note**: We will be examining the hypotheticals of if players had not played. Obviously, if any player had not played in 2019, we would be entering a new space-time continuum where anything could have happened, but for the sake of argument, let's just say we have a Paradox Machine from the Series 5 Finale of Doctor Who and move onward.
First, Mr. Trout and Mr. Bellinger finished the year with 8.3 and 9.0 WAR respectively. Obviously outstanding seasons, worthy of gold gloves, silver sluggers, and whatnot. Valuable though? Not even close. The Dodgers won their division by 21 games, so had the Dodgers replaced Bellinger with FA Jose Bautista before the season began, they still would have won their division and likely received similar postseason production. As far as Mr. Trout, his team didn't make the playoffs, so all his production did assure was that his team finished with 72, rather than 63.7 wins. Had Trout been replaced by whatever centerfielder is wasting away in the Angels system at present, the Angels would have ended up with a worse record than the Rockies, Padres, Pirates, Mariners, and Blue Jays. Thus, because Mr. Trout selfishly played so well, he cost his team when it comes to the draft. Not very valuable to the team's long-term future. Also, for those Astros fans reading who say Bregman should have won, his team won their division by more than 8.4 games, so he was not valuable; all he did was give them homefield advantage, which, as we know, cost the Astros the World Series.
You can always make the argument that given this, the MVP should go to a player like Yelich, whose WAR guaranteed his team made the playoffs (assuming you're into that sort of thing; I've never understood the appeal). However, I ask you, what is more important: a year of postseason success, or six years of an elite prospect who can later be flipped for cash considerations? If the threads about the Chapman trade are anything to go by, it's obviously the latter. With this in mind, let's talk about a couple of real MVPs.
As far as the NL goes, the MVP was not Bellinger, but one Lewis Brinson, outfielder for the Miami Marlins. This year, Mr. Brinson hit .173 with an OPS of of .457, while having -6 DRS. All of this combined in to earn Mr. Brinson a cool, major league worst, -2.2 WAR in 75 games played. You might be thinking, "That's a bit less than ideal", which might be true from his perspective, but from the Marlins' perspective, his performance was magnificent. Had Mr. Brinson played replacement level ball, the Marlins would have won 0.2 more games than the Royals did, causing Miami to finish 4th, rather than 3rd, in the bottom of the league. While Trout and Bellinger were thinking only of themselves and short-term success, Brinson nobly sacrificed himself to aid the Marlins' long-term health and competitiveness. You know who else sacrificed himself for the sake of other? Jesus. Runner up in the NL would probably go to Ian Desmond, whose -1.7 WAR ensured the Rockies finished with a worse record than the White Sox and Angels.
Speaking of the Angels, while Mr. Trout was ensuring a poor draft for the upcoming year, his teammate, Justin Upton, saw the big picture and put in the work to improve the Angels for years to come. Upton hit .215 with an OPS of .724, while having -13 DRS in the outfield, good for a -0.9 WAR in 2019. His doing so ensured the Angels finished a half-game behind the White Sox in the standings, earning the Halos a slightly better position in the upcoming draft. Runner-up in the AL likely goes to another Angel, Max Stassi, who achieved the same thing as Upton, but with less negative WAR while on the Angels. As hard as players like Jeff Mathis and Daniel Palka tried, they simply weren't bad enough to move their teams back in the standings.
TL;DR: bad players are more valuable than good players.