Colorado Rockies: Trevor Story has entered into the MVP conversation

Trevor Story had himself a huge day for the Colorado Rockies on Labor Day. The 2-for-4, two home runs, and five RBI performance helped lead the Rockies to a 9-8 victory over the San Francisco Giants and to a half game lead in the NL West division.

Way back in July, I wrote that Story, the Colorado Rockies All-Star shortstop, could slowly work his way into the MVP conversation. At the time, I received a few eye rolls and jeers, and was accused of creating click bait, as we all knew that Nolan Arenado was the real MVP candidate. But a lot has changed since then and it may be time to enter Trevor Story into that conversation with 25 games left in the season.

If you don’t believe me that Story deserves some consideration with Arenado, take a look at how their stats match up side by side.

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Obviously Arenado’s recent slump has given Story the opportunity to close the numbers gap in a lot of these stats, but Story is also gaining ground in many categories in the National League.

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Before Tuesday’s play, Story is 12th in batting average, 15th in runs scored, fifth in hits, ninth in home runs, tied for fourth with Arenado in RBI, third in extra base hits and seventh in stolen bases.

I mentioned in that previous article that Story’s best chance of entering the MVP conversation was by joining the prestigious 30/30 club. Getting to 30 homers shouldn’t be a problem but he still has some work to do to in the stolen base department. Seven more stolen bases might sound like a tall task but he has swiped seven in his last 12 games.

It will be difficult for Story to get mentioned in the already crowded race and his presence will undoubtedly hurt Arenado’s chances … but he is deserving of some recognition for his breakout season.

Will Trevor Story win the NL MVP this year? Chances are extremely unlikely but if the Rockies plan on winning the West and/or making the playoffs, they are going to need Story and Arenado to play MVP-quality baseball the final four weeks of the season.