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The Baseball Writers Association of America announced the finalists for the 2024 awards. Those are the top three vote getters (listed in alphabetical order) for the four biggest awards: MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year. Winners will be revealed next week, as will each voter’s individual ballot.
MVP
American League
National League
Cy Young
American League
National League
Rookie of the Year
American League
National League
Manager of the Year
American League
A.J. Hinch (Tigers)
Matt Quatraro (Royals)
Stephen Vogt (Guardians)
National League
Carlos Mendoza (Mets)
Pat Murphy (Brewers)
Mike Shildt (Padres)
There’s some intrigue with the Cy Young finalists in particular. Clase landing in the top three over a starter like Corbin Burnes or Cole Ragans is somewhat surprising. Cleveland’s closer had an all-time great showing — awards are voted on before his shaky postseason performance — but it’s rare for a closer to get into this territory. Clase becomes the first reliever since Francisco Rodríguez in 2008 to earn a top-three finish.
In the National League, the biggest development is Skenes landing in the top three for Cy Young. The Pittsburgh righty had a sensational rookie season, posting a 1.96 ERA while striking out nearly a third of batters faced. He only started 23 games and logged 133 innings after being called up in May, however, so it wasn’t clear if his workload was sufficient to get into finalist territory. Skenes is the first rookie to secure a top three Cy Young finish since José Fernández in 2013.
The remainder of the balloting came without a ton of suspense. Ohtani and Judge are expected to win the MVP, while Skubal and Sale should secure the first Cy Young wins of their respective careers. Ohtani would become the 13th player in history to win MVP three times and would join Frank Robinson as the only players to win the award in each league. It’d be Judge’s second such win.
Things are more open with the awards for the top rookies and managers. There wasn’t a dominant rookie showing in the American League. All three NL finalists would have been prohibitive favorites to win the award if they played in the AL. (Even Shota Imanaga and Masyn Winn, who were squeezed out of a loaded NL field, might’ve won in the American League.)
Manager of the Year is always one of the most difficult to predict given the difficulty in quantifying a manager’s impact when a team outperforms general expectations.
The awards will be announced as follows:
Nov. 18: Rookie of the Year
Nov. 19: Manager of the Year
Nov. 20: Cy Young
Nov. 21: MVP
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