Greetings from MLB Awards Week.
While we anticipate some of the biggest free agent signings of the offseason (where will you go, Shohei Ohtani?), we also honor the top players in the game from the 2023 regular season as we look ahead to 2024.
The following is the awards schedule (with the announcement of each award beginning at 6 p.m. ET):
Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year is today.
Tuesday: Year-End Managers
Wednesday: Young People’s AwardsNoteworthy:
Although we have written about Ohtani in a similar manner for years, we have never witnessed someone perform as well as he did in 2023. With 44 home runs, a.412 on-base percentage, and a.654 slugging percentage, he led the AL at the plate. He was 10-5 on the mound with a 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts. At Baseball-Reference.com, he had 10.0 WAR, 2.6 more than any other AL player, and at Fangraphs, he had 9.0 WAR, 2.7 more than any other player. Simply put, there isn’t a compelling case for another player.Even though Ohtani is a lock to win his second MVP award, some voters may find this underwhelming given the early conclusion of his season and the Angels’ dismal 73-89 record.
August 23 was his last pitch, and September 3 was his last at-bat. This not only ended Othani’s hopes of having the greatest season ever, but it may have even convinced some voters to support Seager, who also missed a significant amount of time during the regular season. That could be particularly true if one took into account the playoffs, where Seager once more transformed into Playoff Seager when the games were most important. — Doolittle BradfordWhat to know:
Although the results of our experts’ selections indicate that Acuna will win easily, which is likely the case, the closeness of the race between Acuna and Betts is obscured. They were tied at 8.3 in fWAR. Betts has the smallest margin in bWAR, 8.3 to 8.2. That would usually spark a fierce MVP debate, but Acuna had the more impressive stats: With 41 home runs and 73 steals, he broke past the 40/40 club to establish the 40/70 club in addition to becoming the fifth member of the group.Besides leading the majors in stolen bases, Acuna led the NL in runs, hits, OBP, OPS and total bases. Despite those gaudy numbers and despite Acuna being the favorite for most of the season, Betts had arguably pulled ahead entering the final month, after hitting .455 with 11 home runs and 30 RBIs in August.
Indeed, via FanGraphs, Betts led in WAR, 7.7 to 6.7, at the end of August. Betts, however, struggled in September, hitting .244 with one home run, while Acuna finished with a burst, hitting .340 with 11 home runs. He should join Freeman (2020), Chipper Jones (1999) and Dale Murphy (1982-83) as Braves players to win MVP honors since the franchise moved to Atlanta. — David SchoenfieldTake note: Cole is among the greatest pitchers who have never been awarded the Cy Young Award. He is second in career Cy Young award shares among pitchers without a championship, at 1.90, only behind Adam Wainwright’s 1.98. An award share: what is it? One award share will be yours if you are the unanimous winner.
That is a half share if you receive half of the maximum points that are possible. In six seasons, Cole has been nominated for the Cy Young Award. He finished second with the Astros in 2019 (to Justin Verlander) and third with the Yankees in 2021 (to Robbie Ray).He’ll be getting the trophy this year, and the only question is whether it will be a unanimous selection. Since there isn’t really a compelling case for anyone else, it should be.
If Ohtani hadn’t been hurt, Cole might have been given a run, but he had a great stretch run where he went 5-0 with a 1.29 ERA in his last seven starts, cutting his ERA from 3.03 to 2.63. It wasn’t Cole’s fault, but the Yankees missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Schoenfield –What to know: Not much separates the three nominees, and it wouldn’t even if you included Zack Wheeler of the Phillies, Justin Steele of the Cubs, and Spencer Strider of the Braves. We will learn how much the voters valued Snell’s dominance (MLB-best 2.25 ERA), Webb’s durability (MLB-best 216 innings), and Gallen’s balance of results (210 innings, 3.47 ERA, 17 wins) when we see where they fell on the nomination list.
Cole went 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA, leading the AL in ERA, innings pitched, batting average allowed, OBP allowed and OPS while ranking second to Gausman in strikeouts. He was the runaway leader in bWAR, 7.4 to 5.3 for Gray.
Advanced value metrics are meant to help us sort this out, but in the National League, they can’t agree on who did what. Snell beat Webb for the league lead in bWAR (6.0 to 5.5). Wheeler (5.9) and Strider (5.5) performed better in fWAR than any of the three nominees. To put it all together, Snell seems to be the favorite, but you could choose any of the six pitchers listed above and have a strong case for why they ought to prevail. — LacklusterNote:
Casas had an excellent first half of the season, going from.225/.330/.398 to.317/.417/.617 in the second half; however, a shoulder injury ended his season on September 14. Among the most recent crop of arms to come out of the Cleveland pitching factory, Bibee stood out, going 10-4 with a 2.98 ERA in 25 starts. There’s a hint of “what might have been” in this awards category because Josh Jung of Texas, who was a standout player for the Rangers during their championship run, was expected to challenge Henderson until he suffered a broken thumb late in the season, which sidelined him for six weeks. — Lackluster It’s not always the case that the postseason Rookie of the Year voting corresponds with the preseason prospect rankings, but this year it did. Henderson got off to a slow start, but by May he was clicking, and by the end of the season, he had cemented himself as maybe the best player on the Orioles, even with all of their young talent.
In addition to hitting 28 home runs and scoring 100 runs, Henderson established himself as Baltimore’s starting shortstop by the middle of the summer thanks to his exceptional play in the field. Henderson seems like the obvious choice for this honor.
Leave a Reply