The Baseball Writers of America have announced the finalists for their awards for the recently completed baseball season, which will be announced next week. It is a good bet that few of my original predictions for the winners will be accurate. Hopefully, these new predictions will be slightly better, especially since I’ll have a 33% chance of being right.
American League
Most Valuable Player: Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, Jose Ramirez
Judge has won this award two of the last three seasons and his performance in 2025, when healthy, would ordinarily merit a third, but I have to believe Cal Raleigh, who became just the seventh player to reach the 60-home run mark and the first to do so while catching over 1000 innings, will bring home the award.
Cy Young Award: Hunter Brown, Garrett Crochet, Tarik Skubal
With all due respect to Brown, this is a two-way race. Skubal seemed the obvious choice through much of the season, and I am guessing he will win, but Crochet probably made it much closer down the stretch.
Manager of the Year: John Schneider, Stephen Vogt, Dan Wilson
As usual, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season. Schneider would be the obvious choice if voting were done today, after leading the Blue Jays within inches of a title. Dan Wilson should also get some support for finally pushing the Mariners past the Astros. But, if I had to guess, I would say Stephen Vogt will win, after the Guardians came out of nowhere to pass the Tigers for the AL Central crown after losing Emmanuel Clase to a gambling scandal mid-year.
Rookie of the Year: Roman Anthony, Nick Kurtz, Jacob Wilson
Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season. Kurtz should run away and hide with this award after knocking 36 home runs with an OPS+ of 173.
National League
Most Valuable Player: Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Juan Soto
Shohei Ohtani will easily take home the MVP for the third straight year, and fourth in five years.
Cy Young Award: Christopher Sánchez, Paul Skenes, Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Again, if the voting was done today, Yoshinobu Yamamoto would get a lot more support after winning the World Series MVP. Based on the regular season alone, though, Skenes looks to be the pick after winning the ERA crown with a 1.97 mark.
Manager of the Year: Terry Francona, Pat Murphy, Rob Thompson
To me, this comes down to either Pat Murphy or Terry Francona. Everyone keeps expecting the Brewers to finally fall back, but Murphy led them to the league’s best record. Francona returned to the bench after taking a year off to lead a surprising Reds team to the post-season. Since Murphy won last year, I guess I’ll give the nod to Francona.
Rookie of the Year: Drake Baldwin, Caleb Durbin, Cade Horton
While Horton and Durbin helped their teams make it to the playoffs, Baldwin put up the most impressive year. The award should be his.