When Shohei Ohtani is pitching impressively and hitting over 30 homers, he might always be the MVP favorite unless another player in his league comes up with something awfully special.

Like hitting 60 home runs, for example.

Ohtani vs. Aaron Judge for the American League MVP figures to be the most hotly debated postseason award this year. Judge is closing in on Roger Maris’ AL record of 61 homers and might also win the Triple Crown. He’s done it while playing quite a bit of center field for a team that’s nearing a division title. Ohtani, on the other hand, is pitching better than he did when he was the unanimous MVP last year. He may even be putting himself in the Cy Young conversation, to go along with his 34 homers.

According to Baseball-reference’s wins above replacement stat, the two are pretty close. Judge was at 9.9 entering Sunday, with Ohtani at 9.0.

As phenomenal as he is, there are a couple factors — both last year and this year — that keep Ohtani’s WAR a bit below the Barry Bonds/ Babe Ruth stratosphere. As well as he’s pitched, the Angels are careful about not overusing him. He threw only 130 1/3 innings last year and has 153 this year. His lack of defensive value also works against him.

That’s just nitpicking, of course. If Ohtani doesn’t win MVP this time, it will have taken a truly spectacular performance to beat him.