Washington Nationals outfielder Juan Soto is one of three players nominated for the National League MVP. He will be facing off against Philadelphia Phillies Slugger Bryce Harper, and young Superstar, Fernando Tatis of the San Diego Padres.

Soto is looking like he's going to be arguably the best hitter of all time. It wouldn't be crazy to say right now that he's easily the best all-around hitter in baseball. The at-bats that he takes at 23 years old is something that we've never seen in this game. He hits for incredible power and also has a beautiful approach at the plate.

Soto on the season slashed .313/.465/.999. He led the league in walks, on-base percentage, and intentional walks. As you can tell from leading the league in walks and on-base percentage, Soto's approach clearly works for him. He also added 29 home runs and 95 RBIs.

It's going to be tough for Juan Soto to win this award because Bryce Harper had an incredible season. Add on that Soto's team was not very competitive this year, the award becomes even more difficult to achieve. In Sotos defense, he was still one of the best players in baseball and definitely has a case to win the MVP. Let's take a look at a few reasons why Juan Soto is in National League MVP.

Three Reasons Why Juan Soto Is The MVP

3. He was the best since the All-Star break
He was clearly the best hitter in baseball since the All-Star break. Post-All-Star break Juan Soto might be the greatest hitter in MLB history. His numbers were just simply absurd. At one point through 42 games after the All-Star break, Juan Soto had a .869 OPS and had 11 home runs. These are just video game type of numbers, and honestly, numbers that probably won't ever be repeated. If they do ever get repeated, it's going to be by Juan Soto.

2. He put up these numbers while leading the league in walks
Juan Soto was being pitched around for half of the year and was still able to hit near 30 home runs and slug .534. If pitchers were actually pitching to him throughout the season he might have hit 45+ home runs while also driving in over 120 runs. Teams didn't need to pitch to him because the hitters behind him weren't the best. If you surround Juan Soto with elite hitters, he's going to easily be the best player in baseball and will also probably put up numbers that we've never seen before.

1. Juan did everything he can for his team

It's not easy for an MVP winner to be on a team that has less than 90 wins. If there is one player who is ever going to do that, it's going to be Juan Soto this season. The whole MVP winner has to make the playoffs is going to be thrown out the window this year. None of the three candidates in the National League made the playoffs with their respective teams. It would be unfair to not give Soto the award because his team cannot perform behind him. The Nationals were using a bunch of young guys and are trying to get prepared for the future. They traded Max Scherzer and Trea Turner at the trade deadline. Showing that they were fully in on the rebuild. This didn't affect Juan Soto much as after the trade deadline he only got better from prior to that.

One thing that could come back to hurt Soto is that his team was one of the worst teams in baseball. In Soto's defense, there wasn't much that he can do. The team around him just simply wasn't that good. Fernando Tatis and Bryce Harper didn't make the playoffs either so it shouldn't really hold too much weight on Soto winning this award.

Even if Soto doesn't win this award, it would be tough to argue that he isn't the best hitter in baseball. He might be the only person who can break Ted Williams batting average record in a season. He's also somebody who can hit 50 plus home runs in a season if he's fully healthy for the whole year. What the world is seeing from Juan Soto really is something that we haven't seen in a very long time. He's an incredible player and it's crazy to think that he's only going to get better as he's nowhere near his prime. There's a very good chance that when his career is all said and done, Juan Soto goes down as the greatest hitter of all time.