San Francisco Giants Legend Leads in Career MVPs, But That Record Could Fall

San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds holds the most career MVPs with seven, but that once unreachable mark is suddenly in danger of falling.

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Major League baseball has the best and richest history of any professional sport. Some of it's records, like Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, are widely considered unobtainable.

The game has evolved in many ways since the turn of the century, putting many career marks permanently out of reach. But there is one decisively held record that is suddenly in danger of being broken over the next few years.

Former San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds won seven MVPs, the most in league history by a wide margin. During a stretch with the Giants from 2001-04, Bonds won four straight MVPs. That's more than any other player has won in their entire career.

Bonds is the all-time home run leader in MLB history with 762, passing Hank Aaron's 755 homers back in 2007. Bonds also holds the mark for most home runs in a single season with the 73 he hit in his MVP campaign of 2001. He's the all-time leader in walks with 2,558, he's a 14-time All Star and an eight-time Gold Glove winner.

He's the only player in league history to record at least 500 home runs and 500 stolen bases. He's one of the best, if not the best to ever do it.

Despite his historic accomplishments, Bonds is not in the Hall of Fame due to his association with performance enhancing drugs. He's no longer eligible with the BBWAA vote, but he could still get in through the veterans committee one day.

Of all of Bonds' many record breaking moments, his seven MVPs seems the most out of reach. Of all of the great players in the history of the league, no one else has surpassed three MVPs. No one is even close to catching Bonds — at least not yet.

There are 11 players that have won three MVPs, including two that are active.

Los Angeles Angels living legend Mike Trout makes the list, as does his former teammate and current Los Angeles Dodger Shohei Ohtani.

Trout will turn 34 years old in August and he's missed a ton of time over the last four years. It wouldn't be wise to rule him out on winning another MVP, but four more seems extremely unlikely. He is moving to right field in an attempt to avoid the injuries that have hampered his recent career.

Then there is the Dodgers unicorn Ohtani, who is incomparable to any player in history short of Babe Ruth.

Ohtani will turn 31 years old in July, and he's won three MVPs over the last four years. He's posted at least an 8.9 bWAR during each of those campaigns. There have been many MVP winners since the turn of the century that have won the award while not reaching even 8.0 bWAR. Ohtani is averaging 9.33 bWAR across his three MVP-winning seasons.

As long as Ohtani continues to pitch, which he will return to in 2025, he's going to be the man to beat in every MVP race. He's the most unique player in the last 100 years, and he plays for the league's best team. He's going to be in the national spotlight for years unless his career is derailed by injuries.

Winning four more MVPs is far from a given, even for an unparalleled talent like Ohtani, but it's not out of the question. Even if Ohtani doesn't catch the Giants' icon, chances are the Dodgers dual threat will finish his career as the standalone runner up in career MVPs. If he doesn't miss significant time over the next half decade, he has a real shot to dethrone Bonds as the MVP king.