The Baseball Writers of America have announced the finalists for their awards for the just 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, Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani
Had Shohei Ohtani not had the season he had last year, he would easily walk away with this award. But, as they say, familiarity builds, if not contempt, at least complacency. So Aaron Judge, who broke the American League home run record, will take home the prize.
Cy Young Award: Dylan Cease, Alek Manoah, Justin Verlander
Justin Verlander returned from Tommy John surgery at age 39 and won 18 games while posting a 1.75 ERA. Seems a little suspicious to my eyes, but he will easily take home this award.
Manager of the Year: Terry Francona, Brandon Hyde, Scott Servais
As usual, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season. Scott Servais should have won this award last year, but I don’t think he will make up for it this year. Brandon Hyde led the Orioles to a 31-game improvement over the previous year and their first winning season since 2016. That should get him the award.
Rookie of the Year: Steven Kwan, Julio Rodriguez, Adley Rutschman
Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season. While all three had very successful seasons, my guess would be that Julio Rodriguez brings this award back to Seattle.
