Introducing Your American League MVP: Seattle Mariners Slugger Nelson Cruz

No, Nelson Cruz isn't a five-tool stud. He's never going to win a Gold Glove, and he most certainly won't be doing any Willie Mays Hayes impersonations on the basepaths. 

None of that matters.

What matters right now is simply this: There might not be a single player in baseball more exciting at the plate than Seattle's 34-year-old breaker of trains.

But being exciting doesn't win you MVP awards, even those of the unofficial variety. So why does a right fielder who moonlights as a designated hitter on an 11-17 team deserve to be the MVP of the American League?

By the time we're done running through Cruz's candidacy, his performance over the first month of the season will leave you with no choice but to admit it: "We're not worthy!"

Atlas Slugged

The Seattle Mariners are just a few percentage points away from owning the worst record in the American League. They're seven games behind the Houston Astros for the AL West lead. They've scored the third fewest runs (102) in the AL, better only the Rays and the offensively inept White Sox. 

None of that screams MVP.

Then you look at the numbers. You look at the production. You look at the hulking, 6'2", 230-pound man who has played the entire season carrying a lifeless offense on his broad back.

Finally, you see that merely describing the Dominican slugger as "valuable" doesn't do him justice. He's not just valuable to the team, he is the team.

Without Cruz, Seattle would be at the bottom of a chasm too deep to climb out of. Even though the Mariners are still in a deep hole right now, there's light shining through, slim rays of hope radiating from Cruz's boomstick.

Through May 6, Cruz leads the American League in home runs (14), runs batted in (26), slugging percentage (.757), OPS (1.130), total bases (84) and OPS+ (215). He also ranks among the top 10 in hits (37), batting average (.333) and runs (19). 

And Cruz is just as special in the sabermetrics community. 

FanGraphs has Cruz ranked as the most valuable offensive player in the AL, ahead of Stephen Vogt, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout and every other candidate that might appear atop an early season MVP ballot. 

And lest you think Cruz's stats are merely bloated, meaningless numbers for a lousy team, let me direct you to FanGraph's win probability added category, which measures player performance and impact while accounting for situation.

Basically, this advanced statistic distinguishes and weighs events accordingly; a meaningless ninth inning home run with your team down 10-1 is given less weight than a two-run double which ties the game 2-2 in the seventh inning. 

So, what does his WPA tell us? No batter in the AL has had a more monumental positive impact on his team's offense than the reigning AL Player of the Month. 

WPA is not a perfect or definitive measure of player impact and performance—sabermetrics and advanced baseball equations should have their own class at Harvard, there are really that many—but it indicates that Cruz's hits, from his orbital blasts to his "boring" singles, tend to come at the most important times for Seattle.

One of FanGraphs' other catch-all statistics, wOBA, which measure a hitter’s overall offensive value, based on the relative values of each distinct offensive event, loves Cruz even more. He leads the entire AL in wOBA, and it's really not even close. 

Like in every other offensive category, Cruz's MVP running mates find themselves woefully lacking behind Seattle's sultan of swing. 

And even still, Seattle is barely staying afloat. Without Cruz, the Mariners are just another ship at the bottom of the sea. But with him, they've got enough supplies to patch the hull up until, hopefully, the S.O.S. is seen. 

If you want to be a stickler, you can gripe about the team record, his defense or his 24-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio, or you can sit back and enjoy his herculean feats, like this 483-foot home run off Wandy Rodriguez, the MLB's longest shot of the year:

Long Balls That Matter

We've already seen that, statistically, Cruz wields the most valuable bat in the big leagues, despite being on a disappointing 11-win team. Captain Boomstick is far more than a boom-or-bust, all-or-nothing type slugger in the same vein as Adam Dunn or Mark Reynolds.

His 37 hits have all tended to matter this season. Just look at this chart of his home run occurrences. (A bold row indicates home runs hit in the same game.)

Home Run	Score	Inning	Runners On	WPA	Result
No. 1	1-2	8th	2	.584	Won
No. 2	7-7	10th	0	.419	Won
No. 3	0-0	1st	1	.206	Lost
No. 4	2-0	4th	0	.090	Lost
No. 5	2-0	1st	0	.086	Lost
No. 6	0-5	4th	0	.032	Lost
No. 7	1-0	1st	0	.100	Won
No. 8	2-7	3rd	2	.150	Won
No. 9	0-0	2nd	0	.116	Won
No. 10	0-0	2nd	0	.110	Won
No. 11	1-4	9th	0	.038	Lost
No. 12	0-0	2nd	0	.110	Lost
No. 13	3-9	6th	0	.015	Lost
No. 14	0-0	7th	0	.210	Won

(Home run statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.)

Eleven of Cruz's 14 home runs have come with his team trailing or tied. His teammates were only on base three times to witness the beast's blasts. 

Most of Cruz's round-trippers are lonely struts around the bases, but you can be sure he still enjoys them, like this solo shot off of Matt Shoemaker which broke a late tie:

Over 53 percent of the runs Cruz has driven in are himself, while 27.7 percent of all Mariners RBIs belong to the three-time All-Star. 

His power has left opposing managers with little hope, placing them in a state of despondence when he approaches the plate.

“I have no idea when he gets going like this what to do,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch admitted to the Houston Chronicle's Jose de Jesus Ortiz following an 11-4 victory over the Mariners in which Cruz homered twice.

“He’s as dangerous a hitter as there is in the big leagues. I like when he comes up with nobody on, I can tell you that. He’s got guys around him that are difficult to navigate, but I’m glad they were solo homers.”

Despite Cruz's proclivity for timely blasts, the Mariners are only 6-5 in games in which his shots escape the yard. The team has largely wasted most of the slugger's biggest games.

You can put it together any way you want, but by the time you finish fitting in the final piece of the MVP puzzle, all you'll see is this staring back:

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

You Want Defense? I'll Give You Defense

I know, I know.

Cruz isn't Willie Mays or Andruw Jones or Mike Trout. He's not going to scale walls like Spider-Man or gun down baserunners at third base. 

But for someone who splits his time between right field and designated hitter, Cruz, who has just one error in 162 defensive innings, is capable of some stellar defensive play every now and then.

Will the Boomstick Go Dormant?

This isn't an anomaly. Cruz isn't a bolt of lightning. He's a six-month storm. 

The power has always been there. Cruz ranks fourth among all MLB players with 189 home runs since the start of 2009, per Sports Illustrated's Jay Jaffe.

Though this year he's transformed from star to supernova in tying Cy Williams, Mike Schmidt, Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez for the most home runs through a team's first 26 games.

His OPS will likely come down, as he's never finished out a full season over 1.000, per Baseball-Reference.com. But he played in 159 games last season, led the entire MLB in home runs, drove in 108 runs and finished seventh in the MVP vote.

His play has been so inspired that pieces have been devoted to exploring the origins of his majestic home run swing and the secrets behind his massive 35-inch, 33-ounce, modern day Wonderboy.

Even Mariners' manager Lloyd McClendon has been led to a bit of hyperbole on account of Cruz's deeds.

"I've seen a lot of good hitters do special things at this level," McClendon told Yahoo Sports' Tim Brown. "I say this cautiously [about Cruz], but a lot like Miguel Cabrera. They hit good pitching. They don't just hit mediocre pitching. When that stage presents itself, they step up at a higher level."

Cruz, who has yet to miss a game, is on pace to hit 81 home runs, drive in 150 runs, score 110 runs and smack 214 hits. So, basically, the greatest offensive season of all-time. 

Those numbers can't last, but there's no reason to assume Cruz, who hit 40 home runs last year, can't take aim at 50 moonshots and over 110 RBI, along with maintaining his excellent advanced statistics. He's having a season that makes both the fading old guard and the sabermetricians—formerly baseball's cheeky invaders, now it's all-powerful overlords—giddy.

Where Cruz ends up on the final MVP ballot will likely depend on his lackluster teammates, not a single one of whom is hitting over .263.

With impressive early displays by Adam Jones, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera, Stephen Vogt and Dallas Keuchel, Cruz will either need to produce a historic season or somehow inspire a change in his teammates' ho-hum attitude. 

It's early. Cruz still has, potentially, 134 games left on his plate. A lot can happen between now and September. 

But if nothing else, let it be known that on May 7, 2015, Nelson Cruz was the Most Valuable Player in the American League.

Boom.