MLB awards season is here and we are finally able to find out who the winner of rookie of the year, Cy Young and the MVP. This year the National League Rookie of the year was hotly contested between Pittsburgh Pirates rookie sensation Paul Skenes and Jackson Merriel of the San Diego Padres. The MVP race is usually the most intriguing award race but not this year. This year’s awards cycle has many historical milestones for almost all of the awards.
Rookie of the year
Paul Skenes was the winner of theNational League Rookie of the year. The 6’6” righty had a historic rookie season, he only started 12 games in the minor leagues and was called up. Skenes made his debut on May 11th and pitched to a tune of a sub 2 ERA. He was eventually named the starter for the National League All Star team. A rookie hasn’t been named the All Star starter since Hideo Nomo in 1995. Skenes finished his rookie campaign with a 1.96 ERA through 133 innings, tallying 170 strikeouts. The runner up to Skenes was Jackson Merriel of the San Diego Padres. Merriel posted a .292 batting average and 24 home runs and 90 RBI’s and made the All Star game creating a big debate over who should win the rookie of the year. But throughout the season Skenes maintained his dominance as Merreil’s pace slowed. He eventually came back to form but Skenes was too dominant this year leading to him winning the rookie of the year.
Cy Young
The Cy Young in both leagues were pretty certain to be Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers for the American league and Chris Sale from the Atlanta Braves in the National League. Skubal was the dark horse pick by many to win the Cy Young as he showed promise and potential but lacked the consistency to win the award until this year. Skubal blew past expectations twirling a 2.39 ERA through 192 innings and had 228 strikeouts earning him the American league Cy Young. On the National League side Chris Sale pitched to a tune of a 2.38 ERA with 177 innings he also fanned 225 hitters. Making him the consensus Cy Young winner in the National League after a career rejuvenation when it looked like he was slowing down since his time with the White Sox and some of his time with the Red Sox in 2018.
MVP
The MVP race was over by the All Star break it seemed for many fans since the two front runners Shohei Ohtani from the Los Angeles Dodgers and Aaron Judge from the New York Yankees had historic seasons respectively. Starting with Shohei Ohtani he is known as a two way phenom meaning he both hits and pitches but Shohei does both at an elite level. This is Shohei’s third MVP and he has only played 7 seasons of MLB baseball. This season though he was unable to pitch due to getting Tommy John surgery which makes it much harder for him to win MVP since he is only a designated hitter. However Ohtaini did something we have never seen before, this past season he had a 50/50, the first one in the history of the MLB. A 50/50 season means he hit 50 plus home runs and stole 50 plus bases. To be specific he hit 54 home runs and stole 59 bases. the first one in MLB history. On the American league side Aaron Judge hit a staggering 59 home runs coming close to his record breaking 62 home runs in his 2022 MVP season. While Judge didn’t hit for quite as much power but he improved all of his other stats from that 2022 season, he had more RBI’s, a higher batting average, a higher on base plus slugging and more walks. You could make a great argument that this past season was better than his 2022 campaign since he still had light tower power and had a better all around season at the plate.
Manager of the year
The Manager of The Year award isn’t often talked about, but the two managers this year that won came from the two most surprising teams in the Cleveland Guardians from the American League managed by Sthephen Vogt and the Milwaukee Brewers from the National League managed by Pat Murphy. Both teams were expected to do worse than last year and with both managers being in their first season. But both blew expectations out of the water. The Guardians ended the season winning 92 games and winning the AL central. The Brewers were expected to finish last in the NL Central but won the Central in a landslide winning the division by 10 games and winning a total of 93 games.
