Mookie Betts is the 2020 National League Most Valuable Player. 

That's not literally true. Atlanta's Freddie Freeman won the award Thursday, earning 28 out of 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Freeman was a justifiable choice. But Betts would have been the more justifiable one by the stats and, essentially, in light of the big picture.

Betts vs. Freeman by the Numbers

For context, let's compare Betts' and Freeman's 2020 stats:

Betts: .292/.366/.562, 16 HR, 3.4 Baseball Reference WAR (rWAR)

Freeman: .341/.462/.640, 13 HR, 2.9 rWAR

Parse the numbers, pick a camp, dig in your heels.

In the end, though, this shouldn't have been an especially difficult call. And it should have gone the other way, with Freeman the runner-up and Betts the winner.

Why Betts Is the Rightful MVP

Freeman is a superlative player. He finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2011 and has been consistently excellent ever since.

He made four All-Star appearances and earned four top-eight MVP finishes between '11 and '19. In a sense, his 2020 MVP is a lifetime achievement award, and he isn't done. Someday, Freeman might have a plaque in Cooperstown.

But Betts stands above him, plain and simple.

If we rely solely on rWAR, the argument is open-and-shut. Betts is also a vastly better runner than Freeman, as evidenced by the eye test and the 10 bases he stole to Freeman's two. 

As for glove work, Freeman posted zero defensive runs saved at first base to Betts' 11 DRS in right field.

But Most Valuable Player is ultimately about more than any stat or skill and involves some subjectivity. Here, the tiebreaking query is: Who's the face of the game?

It's Betts in a landslide.

This is a regular-season prize. In that regard, the Dodgers finished with the best regular-season record (43-17)—truncated campaign be damned. Atlanta took the NL East but at an inferior 35-25.

Betts also helped the Dodgers win their first title since 1988 and resides in one of the game's largest markets. This isn't an MVP credential by itself, but it solidifies his status as the league's torchbearer.

Bright lights, big city, massive star.

Betts is the leading man on a huge stage with a second ring on his finger. Say what you will about low-key Mike Trout, injury-prone Aaron Judge or any number of other top MLB names.

Betts, at present, is baseball.

How about intangibles? As MLB.com's Ken Gurnick put it: "In the clubhouse, Betts challenged his new teammates in spring training to raise their game and provided invaluable leadership to young players."

"Leadership" can be a platitude. But the proof is in the championship. Granted, again, the title doesn't win MVP, but let's not pretend it doesn't matter in the big picture.

Betts won a ring and a Most Valuable Player award with the Boston Red Sox in 2018 and would have become the second player ever (joining Frank Robinson) to earn an MVP in both the National League and American League.

Former ace CC Sabathia recently crowned Betts the best player in the game:

Here's some visual evidence. Yeah, it comes in the playoffs, which BBWAA voters couldn't consider, but it's off a ball hit by Freeman in the NLCS and is worth watching. Believe us, Betts made plenty of plays like this in the regular season:

We aren't taking anything away from Freeman, who flexed his muscles and overcame a serious case of COVID-19 before the 2020 regular season.

Atlanta is on the rise behind stars such as Ronald Acuna Jr. and could make Freeman a champion in 2021.

But how do you define MVP? Is it merely a guy on a good team who stuffed the stat sheet? 

Or is it the player who did all of that and rose to the level of sport-defining superstar?

"I think anyone, whether it be a coach, a fan, a member of the media, can look at stats," Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts told reporters on Sept. 21. "But when you see a guy day in and day out and the impact he has on a clubhouse, certainly, [he's been] considerably better than I expected—and I had lofty goals anyway."

Betts was that dude, day in and day out. He's the NL MVP.

Not really, based on the vote. Kudos to Freeman. 

But BBWAA voters will look back in a few years and wonder why they got this wrong. And those in the know will regard Betts as the MVP.

All statistics courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs.