Like him or not, Abreu's an RBI machine for White Sox
Shohei Ohtani is going to win the American League MVP award this season, in a landslide.
Jose Abreu, who won MVP honors last year, is not even on the radar.
He's not having as good of a year as Ohtani or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Salvador Perez, but the total disregard for Abreu is both shocking and not surprising.
Let's start with the shocking part.
Heading into Saturday's game against the Royals at Kansas City, Abreu led the major leagues with 102 RBI.
The Sox's 34-year-old first baseman is positioned to lead the league in RBI for the third straight season, but that's a statistic viewed as overrated by many in the sabermetric crowd.
"My respect to all those people that think that way about RBI, but I think you win games by scoring runs and in order to score runs you have to drive those runs in," Abreu said through a translator. "That's just what it is. I disagree with them, but I respect them. I have my philosophy about the game and you win games scoring runs."
As for not surprising, Abreu is used to the lack of attention outside of the South Side, something that doesn't bother the three-time all star. Much of the snub is due to the alleged insignificance of RBI, which does bother Tony La Russa.
"I'll get on my high horse on this one," the White Sox's manager said. "There have been comments made that the RBI is not a legitimate statistic to evaluate the value of a guy. A guy who can come up with runners in scoring position and deliver has a talent that you need to recognize.
"It goes beyond what the numbers are. Jose, his consistency and his competitiveness, the way he prepares where he literally can attack pitches at all parts of the strike zone, those are represented in his RBI totals. A lot of work, a lot of days where I'm sure he's sore, he goes to the post and concentrates when other guys are distracted. An RBI producer, especially when you're in the middle of the lineup and everybody's trying to stop you, is a really difficult job."
The White Sox's offense has been gradually heating up since key hitters like Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert and Yasmani Grandal returned after missing long stretches with injuries.
When the trio was out, Abreu grinded through all sorts of aches and pains and survived a nasty collision with the Royals' Hunter Dozier in May and getting hit in the helmet by a pitch from Indians reliever James Karinchak in July.
"He never gives up," Jimenez said. "This season has been up and down for him a lot with the average and all that. But he's just out there every single day no matter what."
Abreu was batting .263 through Friday's play, 30 points below his combined average over his first seven seasons with the Sox.
But he is closing in on his fifth year with 30 or more home runs and Abreu really picked it up in August, when he hit .330/.382/.661 with 10 homers and 25 RBI to win AL Player of the Month honors.
"I think it has been a season with ups and downs, everybody can see that," Abreu said. "But work to get to this point. I was swinging at too many pitches out of the strike zone. Now, I've been more selective and swinging at pitches that are strikes. That's why I've been having the success I have right now."