2026 NLDS and ALDS MVPs: José Ramírez powers Guardians to victory; Jackson Chourio makes his hits count

The League Division Series are in the books, and we're handing out fictional hardware for each The first two rounds of the 2026 MLB postseason are complete and the four Championship Series teams have been decided. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers will again meet in the NLCS. In the ALCS, the Tampa Bay Rayswill host the Cleveland Guardians. The final four includes baseball's biggest spenders and three of its smallest payrolls. MLB hands out two (really three) awards each postseason: World Series MVP and one MVP for each of the two Championship Series. There is nothing to recognize the best player in the Wild Card Series or Division Series though, and we're here to right that wrong. We already handed out our hypothetical Wild Card Series MVPs, so now here are our four Division Series MVPs. I reckon it is not often a player wins series MVP after going hitless in Games 1 and 2, but José Ramírez did exactly that here. Cleveland's franchise player erupted after the Guardians fell behind 0-2 in the ALDS, enough to take home our hypothetical ALDS MVP award. He went 5 for 12 with four extra base hits in Games 3-5. Ramírez hit for the cycle across Games 3 and 4 (double and triple in Game 3, single and homer in Game 4). In Game 4, he clubbed a two-run homer in the fifth inning to flip a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. In Game 5, Ramírez drove in the game's only runs with a golf shot two-run homer.