In the next phase of a historic American League MVP race, Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Angels led the list of finalists for MLB's Baseball Writers' Association of America awards, according to balloting results revealed Monday night.
Calling the seasons put up by Judge and Ohtani historic is almost an understatement.
Judge set a new American League record with 62 homers during a season-long race that captivated the baseball world all summer. He also posted AL-best figures in RBIs (131), runs (133), walks (111), on-base percentage (.425) and slugging percentage (.686). He also finished second to Minnesota's Luis Arraez in the AL batting race, just missing a clean sweep of all of his league's major batting categories.
That kind of showing would make a player a unanimous MVP choice in most seasons, but Judge had to contend with Ohtani, whose unprecedented success in a dual role as a hitter and a pitcher perhaps reached another level this season.
After becoming a unanimous choice as the AL's MVP a year ago, Ohtani followed it up by hitting .273 with 34 homers, 95 RBIs, 90 runs and 11 stolen bases. Meanwhile, he got even better on the mound, going 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA and 219 strikeouts while staying on the perimeter of the AL Cy Young conversation.
The unfortunate No. 3 finalist in this MVP chase is fearsome Houston slugger Yordan Alvarez, who hit .306 with a .406 on-base percentage and a .613 slugging percentage, ranking second in all three categories. He hammered 37 homers, drove in 97 runs and scored 95.
If, as expected, Alvarez finished a distant No. 3 in the balloting, he would be able to take solace in the euphoria over his go-ahead three-run homer in the Astros' World Series clincher Saturday, an epic 450-foot blast off the Phillies' Jose Alvarado.
A pair of Cardinals seeking to get over the MVP hump are among the three finalists for the NL award.
St. Louis first baseman Paul Goldschmidt has finished in the top 10 of NL MVP balloting six times, including four in the top five, but is seeking to win the award for the first time.
Goldschmidt put up a monster season and had a chance to break an 85-year drought for NL Triple Crown winners late into the season. He hit .317 with a .404 on-base percentage and an NL-high .578 slugging percentage, slamming 35 homers, driving in 115 runs and scoring 106 times.
Across the diamond, Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado is also an MVP finalist. Like Goldschmidt, he has never won the award but has gotten plenty of support with five previous top-10 finishes. This is his second time finishing in the top three.
Arenado hit .293 with 30 homers and 103 RBIs while winning NL Gold Glove honors at third base for the 10th straight time.
Manny Machado of the San Diego Padres hit .298 with 32 homers with 102 RBIs and 100 runs scored, all totals in line with the annual production that he has put up during his 11-year career. He has finished in the top five of MVP balloting three previous times, twice in Baltimore and once for the Padres. He finished third in the voting after the 2020 season.
The AL Cy Young race is down to a perennial contender and two new faces on the awards contention circuit.
The familiar face is that of Houston ace Justin Verlander. After making just one start over the 2020 and 2021 seasons because of an elbow injury, Verlander returned as good as ever for the champion Astros. He led the AL in wins (18) and ERA (1.75), the latter figure the best of a 17-year career that will likely land Verlander in the Hall of Fame.
Verlander is no stranger to postseason accolades. He is bidding to become just the 11th pitcher to win three or more Cy Youngs, having won the award in 2011 and 2019.
The newbies in the race are righties Dylan Cease of the White Sox and Alek Manoah of the Blue Jays.
Cease's gradual improvement as a big league starter led to a breakout performance this season. He went 14-8 with a 2.20 ERA and struck out 227 batters. Manoah was 16-7 with a 2.24 ERA, throwing 196⅔ innings while showing signs of become an old school-type of rotation workhorse.
Marlins righty Sandy Alcantara is a first-time top-10 finisher in the race for National League Cy Young honors. Considered by many to be the favorite for the award, Alcantara produced a throwback season in which he went 14-9 with a 2.28 ERA over an MLB-high 228⅔ innings with six complete games, the most by any pitcher in six years.
Joining Alcantara as NL Cy Young finalists are a pair of lefties, Max Fried of the Braves and Julio Urias of the Dodgers.
Fried went 14-7 with a 2.48 ERA during an All-Star season and won a Gold Glove award after the campaign. He finished fifth in Cy Young balloting in 2020.
Urias followed up his 20-3 season in 2021 with a 17-7 campaign that included an NL-best 2.16 ERA. Urias, who finished seventh in last year's NL Cy Young race, is bidding to join Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela and Clayton Kershaw as lefty Cy Young winners for the Dodgers.
Scintillating Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez leads the list of finalists in a high-powered race for AL Rookie of the Year, joining Cleveland left fielder Steven Kwan and Baltimore catcher Adley Rutschman.
Rodriguez, 21, helped the Mariners break a 21-year playoff drought, hitting .284 with 28 homers, 75 RBIs and 25 stolen bases while providing highlight-reel defense in the field, all while establishing himself as one of baseball's most charismatic young stars.
Rutschman not only lived up to the potential that made him the first pick of the 2019 draft, but he also finished the season selected as Baltimore's most valuable player in voting by local media.
Rutschman didn't make his big league debut until May 21, when the Orioles were 16-24. They went 67-55 the rest of the way as Rutschman quickly established himself as one of the majors' top all-around catchers. He hit .254 with 13 homers, 42 RBIs and a .362 on-base percentage over 113 games while posting nine defensive runs saved, according to Sports Info Solutions.
Meanwhile, Kwan was an avatar for the go-go style of play that propelled the Cleveland Guardians, baseball's youngest team, to the AL Central title. He walked 62 times while striking out just 60, batted .298, stole 19 bases and scored 85 runs, all while becoming one of four Cleveland defenders to win a Gold Glove.
Rutschman and Kwan were college teammates at Oregon State.
The rookie class in the AL was particularly deep this season, with accomplished rookies like Kansas City's Bobby Witt Jr. and Houston's Jeremy Pena missing out as finalists. Pena, who spent part of his day Monday riding in the Astros' championship parade, is coming off an October when he was named MVP of both the ALCS and the World Series.
The race for NL rookie honors might be down to a hard-to-pick head-to-head race between Atlanta teammates.
Braves outfielder Michael Harris didn't generate much preseason buzz but seized the center-field position for the defending champions, hitting .297 with 19 homers and 20 stolen bases over 114 games.
Voters had to judge Harris' output as a hitter against the pitching of fellow Braves rookie finalist Spencer Strider, who went 11-5 with a 2.67 ERA, working out of the Atlanta bullpen early in the season before becoming entrenched as a starter. He struck out 202 hitters, averaging a whopping 13.8 whiffs per nine innings.
Joining Harris and Strider in the NL rookie race is Cardinals utility player Brendan Donovan, who hit .281 with a .394 on-base percentage while playing plus defense at six different positions.
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde is a first-time AL Manager of the Year finalist for his work leading the remarkable turnaround in Baltimore. After losing 110 games in 2021, the Orioles went 83-79 and stayed in the wild-card chase until the final days of the season.
The other finalists for the award are Seattle's Scott Servais, who finished second in the balloting last year, and Cleveland's Terry Francona. Francona has won the award twice, in 2013 and 2016, and has now finished sixth or better in the balloting 12 times.
The Mets' Buck Showalter is a finalist for NL Manager of the Year after helping New York return to the postseason for the first time since 2016. The Dodgers' Dave Roberts and Braves' Brian Snitker are the other finalists.
Showalter returned to the dugout for the first time since 2018 and led the Mets to 101 victories, the most of any team he has managed over 21 seasons as a big league skipper. He is bidding to win Manager of the Year honors for the fourth time with four different franchises, having won with the Yankees (1994), Rangers (2004) and Orioles (2014).
Roberts, who won the award in 2016, led the Dodgers to a franchise-record 111 wins. It's a level of winning that has become expected in Chavez Ravine with Roberts at the helm. Over the past six seasons, the Dodgers have averaged 105 wins per 162 games played and have made the playoffs in all seven of Roberts' seasons in the dugout.
Snitker won the award in 2018 and has finished in the top four in balloting in five straight seasons.
The finalists for baseball's most prestigious postseason honors reflect the top three finishers in the balloting for each category and were selected by BBWAA members from all 30 of baseball's markets.
Winners of this year's BBWAA awards will be announced next week in a series of nightly announcements, beginning with Jackie Robinson Rookies of the Year winners on Nov. 14, followed by Managers of the Year and the Cy Young winners. This year's MVPs will be revealed on Nov. 17.