The 2022 Major League Baseball season still has just about seven weeks left, which is to say there's plenty of time for things to change. In the case of the 2022 NL MVP race, that could mean a pretty significant amount of jockeying. It's a pretty close race with a decent number of players having a realistic shot.
Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals is the frontrunner at this point, though. (Caesars Sportsbook lists him as the current favorite with -175 odds.)
The seven-time All-Star has four Gold Gloves and four Silver Sluggers. He's finished third in MVP voting before. He's been the runner-up twice. This would be his first MVP, should he complete the job. Winning an MVP certainly boosts Hall of Fame chances. It's always good to be able to flash a little more hardware when voters are contemplating selections.
Let's say Goldschmidt does win this season's MVP and take a look at how his Hall of Fame resume is rounding out.
The rate stats are there. Goldschmidt is a career .295 hitter with a .391 on-base percentage and .528 slugging percentage. The 145 OPS+ and 144 wRC+ show what a well-rounded offensive force he's been throughout his career. Simply, he's hit for average while being excellent both at getting on base and hitting for power.
Now, let's keep in mind Goldschmidt is still in the middle of his compiling before we look at the counting stats. He's 34 years old, so he doesn't exactly have an eternity here. With his bat-on-ball skills, the year he's having at age 34 and the existence of the universal designated hitter, however, he's surely got more productive years coming.
Entering play Thursday, Goldschmidt has 1,706 hits, 372 doubles, 309 home runs, 1,019 RBI, 1,020 runs and 145 stolen bases.
The likelihood here is Goldschmidt won't hit the biggest benchmarks (3,000 hits or 500 home runs), but he's likely to get well into the 2,000s in hits and maybe approach 2,500.