The first year of Major League Baseball's new postseason format gave us some fascinating and exciting best-of-three wild-card series. While it's a bit difficult to choose a series MVP in such a small sample size, we're going to give it a shot. The shorter series saw some unexpected names lead the way for their clubs and featured plenty of fantastic starting pitching.
Here are our choices for MVP from each of the four wild-card series.
Guardians vs. Rays: Triston McKenzie
A pitcher deserves to be the MVP of a series in which three total runs were scored. Both Guardians starters turned in dominant performances, but it was McKenzie who really stood out. The lanky right-hander frustrated the Rays in Game 2, allowing just two hits and striking out eight over six shutout innings in his first career postseason start. His performance served notice to the rest of the American League that Shane Bieber isn't the only weapon in the Guardians' rotation this October.
Mariners vs. Blue Jays: Cal Raleigh
The man who ended the Mariners' 20-year postseason drought was all over the place in Seattle's stunning sweep of the Blue Jays, reaching base in five of his nine plate appearances. Raleigh silenced Rogers Centre with a two-run homer in the first inning of the Mariners' Game 1 shutout win, then added three more hits and scored three runs - including the series-winning score in the ninth - during their historic Game 2 comeback. In a month that's made for new heroes, the catcher needed just two games to become a household name in the Pacific Northwest. Not bad for a weekend's work.
Phillies vs. Cardinals: Aaron Nola
The Phillies' frantic ninth-inning comeback Friday turned this series on its head, and on Saturday, Nola made sure to slam the door shut on the Cardinals. The 29-year-old was masterful in his long-awaited postseason debut, tallying six strikeouts over 6 2/3 shutout frames in Game 2. While the Phillies will likely only get to throw Nola at the Braves once in the NLDS, he's a big part of the reason Philadelphia got there.
Padres vs. Mets: Trent Grisham
With due respect to Joe Musgrove, who turned in an absolute gem in Game 3, this series was The Trent Grisham Show. The man with a .626 regular-season OPS was unstoppable this weekend, hitting .500/.667/1.250 with two homers, three RBIs, and five runs scored. Grisham also walked twice and didn't strike out in 12 plate appearances during the series. He started the Padres' march to the NLDS with his stunning homer off Max Scherzer early in Game 1, then took Jacob deGrom deep in Game 2. Grisham also contributed defensively, making a stellar running catch that proved pivotal in the Friars' series-clinching shutout.