Believe it or not, the LBPRC regular season is over halfway complete. Each of the six Puerto Rican winter league organizations has played 21 or more games. The regular season schedule is 40 games and ends on January 4, 2025.
A handful of talented players are enjoying great seasons in 2024-25, but three stand out above the rest. Due to their outstanding first half of the campaign, these three players should each receive consideration for the 2024-25 LBPRC Most Valuable Player Award if they can keep up their magnificent play.
Díaz is playing in his 10th season in the LBPRC and his second with the Leones de Ponce. The former 15th-round draft pick of the Oakland Athletics in the 2013 MLB June Amateur Draft leads the league with six home runs while having a 1.027 OPS, good for second in the LBPRC behind Willie Calhoun. However, Calhoun only has nine plate appearances compared to 86 for Díaz.
Díaz is a former LBPRC MVP who won the award during the 2022-23 season with the Criollos de Caguas. That season, the then-26-year-old hit .229, hit eight home runs, and had 29 RBI. In the summer of 2024, Díaz played for the Sareperos de Saltillo of Liga Mexicana de Béisbol.
Castro’s case for the 2024-25 LBPRC MVP is intriguing, given that he has yet to hit a home run in 22 games and just 17 total in 504 professional games. It’s good that his numbers outside this year’s LBPRC season do not matter for MVP consideration.
However, the lefty hitter is still just 27 and has shown great discipline and bat-to-ball contact skills thus far. In 95 plate appearances with the Cangrejeros, Castro has drawn 19 walks compared to only seven strikeouts. He ranks second in walks in the LBPRC behind second baseman Bryan Torres of the Gigantes de Carolina, and his tremendous knack for laying off pitches out of the zone places him first in the league with a .526 on-base percentage. Castro made 24 appearances behind the plate for the RA12 during the 2023-24 season, but the Cangrejeros prefer him in the outfield.
Ortiz has the unique distinction of playing in Major League Baseball (nine games with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2017) and is a two-time LBPRC MVP, taking home the award in 2021-22 and 2016-17.
At 34, he’s the oldest player of the three candidates and will turn 35 on January 5. Despite his age, Ortiz is showing no signs of slowing down. The outfielder has a .851 OPS through 22 games and is tied for third in the LBPRC with 14 RBI, only two behind Henry Ramos of the Cangrejeros. Ortiz hit his fourth home run of the season on December 4 in a 6-3 loss to the Leones and followed it up with a 3-for-5 performance the next day in a 6-1 win against the Gigantes de Carolina. Ortiz is a significant reason why the Indios (13-9) sit in second place in the standings, just one game back of the first-place Senadores de San Juan.
Previous 10 LBPRC MVP Award Winners
How to Watch the LBPRC:
The 2024-25 regular season can be streamed for free on the league’s YouTube page and the LBPRC mobile phone app.
