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: Yordan Alvarez, Junior Caminero, Bobby Witt Jr.
Alvarez, who finished third in MVP voting in 2022, looks to be a lock after leading all qualifying hitters in batting average, OBP, and slugging while falling just short of the Triple Crown while setting career highs in home runs and RBIs.
Cy Young Award: Dylan Cease, Parker Messick, Cam Schlitter
Schlittler led the AL with a 1.95 ERA in 33 starts and he tied for the second-most strikeouts in the AL with Cease. I assume he will be taking home the award.
Manager of the Year: Kevin Cash, Chad Tracy, Will Venable
As usual, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season. In a normal season, both Cash and Tracy would deserve serious consideration. Cash led the underfunded Rays to the AL East title, holding off “superior” rosters in New York and Boston. Tracy took over a dead-in-the-water Red Sox team and turned them around, leading them into the playoffs. Unfortunately for them, Will Venable led the upstart White Sox to the most wins in MLB history for a team coming off of at least three straight 100-loss seasons, becoming the first team ever to make the post-season after two straight 100-loss seasons. I can’t see any scenario where he does not win.
Rookie of the Year: Kevin McGonigle, Parker Messick, Payton Tolle
Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season. McGonigle has been the assumed winner since June, and I don’t think anything Messick or Tolle did since has changed that.
National League
Most Valuable Player: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Shohei Ohtani, Brice Turang
An injury filled season for Shohei Ohtani opened the door for someone else to win the award and Pete Crow-Armstrong took the bull by the horns and should easily win.
Cy Young Award: Jacob Misiorowski, Chris Sale, Christopher Sánchez
Sánchez finished second to Paul Skenes last year and might have to settle for the same result this year, as I assume Jacob Misiorowski, who led the league with 252 strikeouts and a 1.80 ERA, will win the whole thing.
Manager of the Year: Don Mattingly, Pat Murphy, Walt Weiss
Pat Murphy looks to become the first manager to win this award three straight years, and he has a strong resume to do so, leading the Brewers to a franchise-record for wins in the regular season. Unfortunately for him, voting was done prior to the post-season, so his World Series title won’t play in his favor. Mattingly took over a struggling Phillies team and got them into the playoffs. Weiss led the Braves to the NL East title. My guess is familiarity breeds a little contempt here and that Mattingly wins the award.
Rookie of the Year: Carson Benge, Sal Stewart, JJ Wetherholt
There’s no runaway winner here, but Stewart, to me, put together the best overall season. The award should be his.