Castellanos: Mets' Iglesias deserved NL MVP over Ohtani

Nick Castellanos might have provided the hottest MVP take of all time.

The Philadelphia Phillies outfielder believes Jose Iglesias of the New York Mets should've been named 2024 National League MVP over Shohei Ohtani.

"MVP of the National League," Castellanos called Iglesias during an appearance on "The Chris Rose Rotation."

"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 credited Iglesias for bringing his "Latin spark" to the Mets, which he believes contributed to an organization-wide turnaround.

The Mets were nine games under .500 when they called Iglesias up from Triple-A last May. The veteran infielder immediately went on a heater, hitting .409 across his first six games en route to a terrific year at the dish where he slashed .337/.381/.448 in 85 games.

Iglesias also recorded a popular song titled "OMG," which became a rallying cry for the Mets as they turned around their season and reached the National League Championship Series.

Castellanos understands his opinion might draw the ire of some people, most notably some statisticians.

"I'm not a sabermetrician, I'm a baseball player," Castellanos said.

"I'm saying that him going to the Mets and being himself got the organization to move in one direction. Shohei Ohtani played a huge part in the Dodgers winning. I don't know if he's the sole purpose of the Dodgers moving in one direction. That doesn't mean that what Shohei did isn't record-book-worthy and he's not an amazing baseball player. If I'm starting a team, I pick Shohei over Jose, there's no doubt about it, I'm not stupid, but the way that I saw baseball last year through my eyeballs, Jose Iglesias is the National League MVP."

Iglesias didn't receive any NL MVP votes last season.