NL MVP Rankings: Whoa! Where Did Jason Kubel Come From?

As some teams, such as the Oakland Athletics, have surged from seemingly nowhere to suddenly become playoff contenders, so have certain players abruptly emerged as contenders for individual awards. 

The Arizona Diamondbacks' Jason Kubel has exploded in July, making himself an MVP candidate when he was initially considered his team's third-best, maybe fourth-best, outfielder to begin the season. Now, he's hitting most everything out of the ballpark and keeping the D-Backs in the NL West race. More on him later. 

One tough decision that we made with this week's rankings was taking Joey Votto out of the top five. He hasn't played since July 15 and is expected to miss two to three more weeks as he recovers from arthroscopic knee surgery. However, Votto is still ranked among the NL leaders in most every offensive category. When he returns, he'll likely be back on this list.

As always, your suggestions for candidates and the order of these rankings are welcome in the comments, and they help shape this list each week. But as of this week, these five players look like top contenders for National League Most Valuable Player. 

5. David Wright, New York Mets

Last week: No. 4

Since the All-Star break, the New York Mets have lost 11 of 13 games. That slide has effectively killed their chances of contending for the NL East title or a wild-card playoff spot.

Taking that into consideration, it's difficult to consider David Wright a strong MVP candidate anymore. His numbers are still impressive. His .336 batting average ranks fifth in the NL. Only Joey Votto has a higher on-base percentage than his .425. And Wright's .985 OPS is the fourth-best mark in the league. 

In the nine games he's played since our last set of NL MVP rankings, Wright has hit four home runs with eight RBI. Unfortunately, that power surge did little to help his team.

At 48-51, the Mets are 11.5 games behind the Washington Nationals for first place in the NL East. They're 6.5 games back in the wild-card standings. 

Wright has had a fine individual season and once again established himself as one of the best players in baseball. The Mets should absolutely sign him to a contract extension and continue making him the face of their franchise, but at this point, his MVP chances are looking pretty slim. 

4. Jason Kubel, Arizona Diamondbacks

Last week: Unranked

The Arizona Diamondbacks signing Jason Kubel to a two-year, $15 million contract was one of the most curious transactions of the offseason. 

The D-Backs already had an established outfield of Gerardo Parra, Chris Young and Justin Upton. Kubel had played 50 games in right field with the Minnesota Twins in 2011, but he'd also played 37 games at designated hitter. He appeared to be far better suited for American League play.

Yet Arizona general manager Kevin Towers obviously saw a need for Kubel on his roster. In particular, the D-Backs needed some left-handed power in their lineup. And if that meant sacrificing some outfield defense, Towers and manager Kirk Gibson were apparently willing to make that compromise. 

During the first three months of the season, Kubel did indeed provide some pop. He hit 11 home runs, which kept pace with his regular career numbers. Kubel has averaged approximately 20 homers per season as a full-time player.

However, Towers couldn't have anticipated Kubel's production would explode the way it has in July. As of this writing, he's hit 11 home runs with 22 RBI while compiling a slash average of .313/.380/.891. That slugging percentage isn't a typo. Kubel's OPS for July is 1.271.

Over his past nine games, Kubel has hit 13-for-38 (.342) with nine home runs and 12 RBI. That includes a game last Saturday in which he hit three homers and drove in six runs. With 72 RBI, Kubel currently leads the NL.

With a 49-49 record going into Friday's play, the D-Backs are on the fringe of playoff contention, six games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants in the NL West and 5.5 games out of a wild-card playoff spot.

Where would Arizona be without Kubel at this point?

3. Melky Cabrera, San Francisco Giants

Last week: Unranked

The San Francisco Giants lead the NL West by three games going into Friday night's play. One of the reasons the Giants have been able to outpace the competition in their division this season is a vastly improved offense. 

Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval may provide most of the thump in the Giants lineup, but the most consistent threat this year has been Melky Cabrera. Cabrera leads baseball with 136 hits, and his .356 batting average is tied for second best in the majors. 

The Giants outfielder also ranks among the top 10 NL hitters in on-base and slugging percentage, as well as OPS. 

If the Executive of the Year award could be given out for one trade, general manager Brian Sabean should win the honor for the grand theft he perpetrated on the Kansas City Royals to get Cabrera. The player Sabean traded for Cabrera, pitcher Jonathan Sanchez, was designated for assignment recently and dumped to Colorado in a crap-for-crap deal for Jeremy Guthrie. 

In the seven games since last week's NL MVP rankings, Cabrera hit 12-for-31 (.387) with two home runs and five RBI. If Sandoval's strained hamstring puts him on the disabled list, Cabrera will have to maintain that level of production to keep the Giants offense rolling. But he's done it all season. 

2. Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers

Last week: No. 3

The beneficiary of Joey Votto's (likely temporary) exit from our NL MVP rankings is Ryan Braun, who moves up to the No. 2 spot on this week's list. 

However, Braun could have justified his move up based on his numbers. During the past week, Braun missed one game with a groin strain. But in his seven games since then, the reigning NL MVP hit 11-for-29 (.379) with two doubles, two home runs and four RBI. 

Braun's 28 homers lead the NL, and his 69 RBI place him third. His .314 batting average and .396 on-base percentage rank him among the 10 best in the league, while his .612 slugging percentage is the second-best mark. Braun's 1.008 OPS makes him one of three NL batters above 1.000 in that category. 

One knock against Braun's MVP candidacy is the record of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Brew Crew is 10 games under .500, at 44-54 as of this writing. That places the Brewers 14 games back of first place in the NL Central and 10 games out of a wild-card playoff spot. General manager Doug Melvin is going to trade Zack Greinke by the July 31 trade deadline and could sell off other pieces like Shaun Marcum and Francisco Rodriguez as well. 

If making it to the playoffs gave Braun the edge over Matt Kemp in last year's NL MVP balloting, then team performance has to hurt him this year. This is probably as high as Braun will get on this list through the rest of the season. 

1. Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates

Last week: No. 1.

Andrew McCutchen was bound to cool off a bit after swinging a scorching bat in recent weeks, but it's not like he's fallen into some deep slump. Over his past eight games, McCutchen has hit 8-for-27 (.296), which is still a strong performance.

But let's talk about what the Pirates center fielder has done in July. Going into Friday's play, McCutchen has hit .458/.524/.792 with seven home runs and 15 RBI.

McCutchen's .368 batting average leads the majors. His .425 on-base percentage is tied for the second-highest mark in baseball, while his .629 slugging percentage tops all big league hitters. Only Joey Votto has a higher OPS than McCutchen's 1.054.

That effort has kept the Pirates solidly in playoff contention. Pittsburgh is currently two games behind the Reds for first place in the NL Central and has a claim on one of the NL wild-card spots, 1.5 games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals. 

The Pirates have taken major steps to bolster their playoff chances in recent days, trading for Wandy Rodriguez to shore up their starting rotation and calling up top outfield prospect Starling Marte to help McCutchen carry the offensive load. General manager Neal Huntington could still pick up another bat before the July 31 trade deadline. 

Would more help somehow hurt McCutchen's MVP chances? Absolutely not. The man was the Pirates' entire offense during the first two months of the season. Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker and Garrett Jones have emerged as significant contributors. And more help could be on the way. 

But one guy keeps the Pirates' ship sailing. No one has been more valuable to his team this season. 

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