I don’t want to get into arguing about what the true meaning of the Most Valuable Player award is, in this blog. All I want to say is this: No matter how you slice it, there’s a strong argument that Emanuel Reynoso is the most valuable player in Major League Soccer this year.

I am guessing that a guy who missed the first 15 games of the season, for personal reasons that neither he nor the team was willing to expand upon fully, is not going to get a lot of post-season awards votes. This is especially true when most of the “should an Argentine number 10 who arrived halfway through the season be in consideration for league awards” discussion will center on another MLS player this year.

That said, let me give you some stats here. First, Reynoso has now started nine MLS games this year; the Loons are 4-4-1 in those games, earning 16 points and losing just once. That’s 1.77 points per game, and for context, Western Conference-leading St. Louis has 1.74 points per game this year.

More stats, from American Soccer Analysis. On a per-game basis, among players who’ve played more than five games this year, no player has more expected goals + expected assists than Reynoso.

On a per-game basis, among players who’ve played more than five games this year, no player has added more goals (using the ASA Goals Added model) than Reynoso.

From FBRef, on a per-game basis, no player has created more shots than Reynoso, and - once again - no player has more expected goals + expected assists than Rey.

We can argue about the value of every position on the field, but given Reynoso’s role - as the chief creator and attacking force in the United lineup - it’s hard to argue that there’s any player in the league that’s playing better than the Loons’ number 10 right now.

Put another way, you might remember when Reynoso first arrived in Minnesota, midway through 2020, and proved himself to be a force unlike anything that Minnesota fans had seen. He started nine games down the stretch in the regular season, plus all three playoff games, and ended up providing two goals and 12 assists in 16 total appearances. In that stretch, he averaged 1.16 goals + assists per 90 minutes, and .60 expected goals + assists.

So far in 2023, in MLS, Reynoso has 0.88 goals + assists per 90, and expected totals of 1.02 goals + assists. You can throw in that, in five Leagues Cup games, Rey also scored twice and added six assists, so he’s got eight goals and eight assists in 16 appearances this year.

So that absolute heater that he went on in 2020? If anything, he’s been even better in 2023.