2026 Predictions

With the Yankees and Giants on track to open the 2026 season tonight on Netflix and the rest of the league scheduled to follow suit tomorrow, it is time, for the 16th consecutive year, to look into my crystal ball and make my picks for the division, league, and major award winners for the upcoming season.

American League

East: Blue Jays

Central: Tigers

West: Mariners

Wild Cards: Yankees, Red Sox, Astros

AL Champion: Tigers

Cy Young: Tarik Skubal

MVP: Julio Rodriguez

National League

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2023 BBWAA Award Predictions

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: Shohei Ohtani, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien

Shohei Ohtani should run away and hide with this award.  But, an early end to his season and perhaps some burnout from voters picking the same name every year may open the door a bit.  That said, these awards were voted on prior to the post-season, so the Rangers World Series win won’t move the needle at all, so I’m going to guess Ohtani still gets it.

Cy Young Award: Gerrit Cole, Kevin Gausman, Sonny Gray

Gerrit Cole seems the obvious choice here.  He leads the three finalists in nearly every category and managed a WHIP below one in over 200 innings.

Manager of the Year: Bruce Bochy, Kevin Cash, Brandon Hyde

As usual, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season.  If voting took place after the World Series, then Bochy would be a shoo-in.  However, since the early playoff exits of the Orioles and the Rays don’t get taken into account, Brandon Hyde should win this award after leading the Orioles to an AL East title.

Rookie of the Year: Tanner Bibee, Triston Casas, Gunnar Henderson

Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Gunnar Henderson will win, since he in the only one of these three that I have heard of previously.

National League

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