Matt Chapman legitimate MVP contender during first fully-healthy season

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Baseball fans are well aware of what Matt Chapman can do with his glove. After all, he won the American League's Platinum Glove Award last year as the league's best defensive player.

Now the rest of the country is starting to realize what A's fans already knew -- Chapman is just as good with his bat.

Through 27 games, the A's third baseman is slashing .311/.407/.633 with eight home runs and 18 RBI. That puts him on a pace for 48 homers and 108 RBI over the course of a full season.

"I'd say he's one of the better players in the league," said A's manager Bob Melvin. "I think you're going to be talking about him in MVP conversations for years to come. Last year he even snuck up on it with how he played in the second half. He's an elite player."

Those are powerful words from a man who has been around the game for a long time and seen his share of elite players. That endorsement means a great deal to Chapman.

"It's an honor," he told NBC Sports California. "It means a lot because I respect him and look up to him. ... I never really think about that. I'm in it so much that I never take a step back and appreciate where I'm at. My whole life, I was kind of the underdog and all I wanted to do was show people what I could do and just keep getting better. To be at this point, it's a journey and I have a lot of people to thank, obviously. But I still feel like I have a lot of work to do."

Chapman, 25, is certainly not an underdog anymore, but he still carries that chip on his shoulder and works as hard as anyone in the league. His improvement at the plate has been both rapid and dramatic.

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During his rookie season in 2017, Chapman hit just .234 in 84 games, with 92 strikeouts and 32 walks. Last season, he improved to .278 in 145 games, though he still struck out 146 times compared to 58 walks.

This year, Chapman has only struck out 11 times in his first 27 games, while drawing 14 walks. He leads the A's with a 1.041 OPS and ranks second in batting average, home runs, and RBI.

Chapman says a big part of his improvement, in addition to hard work, has been his health. This past offseason, he underwent surgery on both his right thumb and left shoulder.

"Having my thumb back (healthy) helps a lot," Chapman said. "I've never really been healthy in the big leagues until this year. I hurt my thumb in 2017, so I've pretty much played with a hurt thumb over the last two years.

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"I feel like the fact that my hand is better, I've been able to drive the ball the other way like I wanted to. It was hard for me to fight through some of those balls with my thumb being banged up, not that that's an excuse or anything. But I feel like I'm finally healthy."

So is Chapman really an MVP contender? It's still early in the season, but so far, the numbers indicate he is. Chapman's 1.8 WAR ranks second in the American League, behind only Mike Trout at 2.1. He's also in the top six in home runs, slugging percentage, and OPS.

If Chapman can maintain this offensive pace, while still being Matt Chapman on defense, he might end up taking home even more hardware than last season.
 

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