With scandal after scandal rocking the National Football League and hogging all of the national sporting headlines over the past week, it’s easy to forget that there is still a Major League Baseball season ongoing as we start to settle into fall.

It’s a sad irony that since MLB’s season and postseason is forced to share its final two months with the behemoth that is college and professional football, is in the spotlight the least during its most exciting and important point.

Suffice it to say, many New Englanders have already forgotten there ever was a 2014 MLB season, considering the way the Red Sox have fallen off a cliff and crash-landed with a large thud.

But there’s one major reason to keep paying attention to baseball, no matter where you live or what team you root for: His name is Clayton Kershaw. He pitches left-handed for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he’s quickly making a case for himself as one of the best baseball players to ever live.

Considering Kershaw is only 26 years old and has only been in the big leagues for seven seasons, that statement could be seen as hyperbole. That is, until you look at the stats.

For background, Kershaw has already won the National League Cy Young award ”“ given to the best pitcher in the league ”“ in 2011 and 2013, finishing second in 2012. He’ll undoubtedly pick up his third Cy Young award after having the best season by a pitcher this century, in the process becoming by far the youngest pitcher to win the Cy Young three times.

Despite missing the first six weeks of the season with an injury, Kershaw leads all of baseball in wins, with 19 after pitching the NL-West leading Dodgers ”“ who are 21-4 when Kershaw starts ”“ to a crucial win over the rival Giants on Sunday.

Kershaw also leads baseball in earned run average with a 1.70, a .29 lead over that of the next lowest pitcher. Kershaw will almost certainly end the year as the ERA champion, and if he does end, he’ll be the first player to ever (ever!) do that for four consecutive seasons; and by the way, if Kershaw retired tomorrow, his career earned run average of 2.49 would be the lowest among starters in the live-ball era with a minimum of 1,000 innings pitched.

Kershaw’s 0.83 WHIP (walks and hits allowed per inning) is also the league’s lowest. In fact, in the past 100 years, only Pedro Martinez (0.73 in 2000) and Greg Maddux (0.81 in 1995) have compiled a lower WHIP.

To go deeper into more advanced stats, Kershaw leads all National League players regardless of position in wins above replacement at 7.4 ”“ a remarkable achievement considering his time missed ”“ and has a Fielding Independent Pitching number of 1.89, which, if it holds up, would be tied for the 10th-best ever.

All of this brings up the main point: Not only is Kershaw far and away the best pitcher in baseball, he’s the best player regardless of position, and deserves this year’s National League Most Valuable Player award.

Traditionally, the MVP has been reserved by position players, and rightly so; positional players play every day, while starting pitchers pitch only one in every five games, and thus are much more “valuable.” Since the award was started in 1922, only 24 pitchers have been named the MVP in either the American or National Leagues, including just one ”“ Detroit’s Justin Verlander in 2011 ”“ in the last two decades.

But for Kershaw’s momentous season, it’s time to make an exception. The Dodgers have a near automatic win every time he pitches ”“ even if it is just once every five days ”“ unless they score two or fewer runs. Without his 7.4 wins above replacement, they’d be scratching and clawing just to make the playoffs, not three games up on the Giants for the division lead.

And, perhaps most importantly, Kershaw’s only competitor for the award has recently been forced to drop out of the race: Miami Marlin outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, having a dominant year himself at the plate, was hit by a pitch in the face this past week and is out for the rest of the season.

Without Stanton healthy at the most important point of the season, there is no standout position player contending for the award; and even if there were, Kershaw’s remarkably dominant season would make him just as worthy. Whether or not the NL voters, who haven’t voted a pitcher as the Most Valuable Player since Bob Gibson in 1968, agree is another matter.

But beyond the talk of individual awards is the fact that Kershaw ”“ who, by the way, was named MLB’s humanitarian of the year in 2012 for his extensive charity work ”“ is an absolute joy to watch pitch, a master at the zenith of his powers who surgically dismantles opposing lineups, the kind of player people will be telling their grandchildren about in 60 years time.

He next takes the mound for the Dodgers on Friday against the Chicago Cubs in a game that will be televised nationally by WGN America. Any baseball (or sports) fan would be well advised to watch, and anyone with a vote would be well advised to place him at the top of their NL MVP ballot.

It would be a historic decision, but one a historically great pitcher like Kershaw fully deserves.

— Cameron Dunbar is a sportswriter for the Journal Tribune.

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