Who is going to win each MLB award? Midseason check-in : Judge, Alcántara...
With the All-Star Game in Los Angeles right around the corner and the first half of the season completed, every MLB award already has a favorite.
This season may have started a week later than usual, but we have already reached the midpoint as every team has already played over 80 games of great baseball, like the New York Yankees (61-24), or not so great one, as the Oakland Athletics (29-57). As teams’ records already show us who will probably get to the playoffs and who will get a great pick in next summer’s draft, we can see which players get to the All-Star Game and will fight for this season’s awards in September.
Most Valuable Player
AL MVP: Aaron Judge, New York Yankees.
The towering outfielder from the Bronx would get his first MVP if the season were to end today, just as he would get an immense contract as an impending free agent this coming offseason. “The Judge” has been demolishing baseballs all season, already having reached 30 home runs, and doing so for the best team in the league as well, which for me is the deciding factor in the race for this award. Shohei Ohtani is doing historic stuff as a two way player, Rafael Devers is exploding as one of the best infield bats in the game and Mike Trout is being Mike Trout once again, Yordán Álvarez is having a crazy season at the DH position, but Aaron Judge is on pace for 60 home runs with a 176 OPS+ while his team tries to beat 2001 Mariners 109-wins record season.
He may not get to that number of bombs, his team may fizzle out once they have secured the division, but for now there’s nothing to do but wait and watch as Judge and the Yankees try to make history.
NL MVP: Paul Goldschmidt, St. Louis Cardinals.
The first baseman is simply having his best season ever, improving upon a 2021 where he finished 6th in MVP and won a Golden Glove, his fourth. He’s showing up every game and uplifting the Cardinals chances to win the Central Division in their quest to catch the Brewers. Goldschmidt is batting .340, he has 19 home runs and an OPS over 1.000, it just looks like a great season that only a couple of third basemen are even close to, in Padres’ Manny Machado and Cardinals’ teammate Nolan Arenado. If Goldschmidt keeps this rhythm up, he will have a 10-WAR season, an MVP award and quite a clear path to make the Hall of Fame once he retires a few years down the road.
Rookie of the year
AL ROY: Julio Rodríguez, Seattle Mariners.
The Dominican phenom, the multi tool hitter who will get the reins of Seattle’s outfield just as Ken Griffey Jr and Ichiro Suzuki did before him and try to lead this team back to the postseason more than twenty years later. With a 135 OPS+ along with above average centerfield defense and amazing base running, Rodríguez has been all that was promised, and then some.
It took J-Rod some time to get the right quality of contact to get the ball flying, but now he’s already breaking home run and stolen bases records, winning AL Rookie of the Month and AL Player of the Week awards, all while his team is surging, in a seven-game winning streak that has put them just a couple of games back from a wild-card spot. The future has always seemed bright for the Rodríguez-led Mariners, but he might even get the current Mariners to forget their past. He sits at the top of a very good AL rookie class next to shortstops Jeremy Peña and Bobby Witt Jr.
NL ROY: Spencer Strider, Atlanta Braves.
A close call with his teammate Harris, as the outfielder has been having a superb season since his call-up from the minors at the end of May, but Strider has simply been a tremendous addition to the champions starting rotation. The 23 year old has started his majors career with a 2.60 ERA in 65 innings pitched in what seems like the beginnings of another ace next to young stars Max Fried and Ian Anderson. Once postseason comes, Strider will face his toughest challenge, but for now he’s striding along and striking out whoever is in front of him, at an astounding 14 punchouts per 9 innings rate.
Manager of the year
AL MOY: Aaron Boone, NY Yankees.
Boone faced harsh criticism after last season’s early exit from the Playoffs on the wild-card round against the Boston Red Sox, but Brian Cashman doubled down on his manager with the hope that a few tweaks in the roster would be enough to show the potential this Yankees team has in them. That’s exactly what has happened, an offseason in which they did not pursue, or at least acquire, any of the biggest Shortstops on the market, such as Carlos Correa and Corey Seager, saw them make changes around the edges, adding Josh Donaldson or Isiah Kinner Falefa through trades, who have worked out just great. Boone has meshed up a very good line-up with tremendous power and the presumptive AL MVP, an amazing rotation headlined by Gerrit Cole, and a relief staff that has overcome Aroldis Chapman decline, to create the latest Yankees juggernaut. Their postseason success (or lack of) will determine whether this is a good season or not, but there’s no reason not to believe in the Bronx Bombers right now.
NL MOY: Buck Showalter, New York Mets.
He came back with a mission, to make the Mets a respectable franchise that plays up to the level their players can, and he’s been delivering exactly that. Showalter has not yet had RHP Jacob DeGrom available, and the star addition of the team, Max Scherzer (one of the bigger advocates for Showalter’s signing as well), has been in and out of the line-up, but the veteran manager has made do with Tylor Megill, Chris Bassit and some other less-spectacular pieces. They lead the division by 2.5 games over the Braves, and they have changed last year’s constant controversies and internal quarrels for a smooth running machine that will most likely get them to the postseason for the first time since 2016.
Cy Young
AL Cy Young: Shane McClanahan, Tampa Bay Rays
McClanahan has four different pitches, and they are all great. He’s leading the American League in ERA (1.74) and strikeouts (133), and only 36 have come from his 97mph fastball., The Rays pitching factory might be a mystery sometimes, it’s not easy to know how they get all they get out of every single arm that either comes from or arrives at their farm and pitch development system, but that’s not exactly the case with Shane McClanahan: he just happens to be uber-talented. Not to discredit the Rays, of course, who are the ones who have developed his pitches during the past few years and have brought him to the best possible position to succeed, but when watching McClanahan pitch it’s easy to get as dumbfounded as his opposing hitters. McClanahan may be fighting Cy Young just in his second season, but even if he does not win the award this season it is hard to believe that there are no more down the road for him.
NL Cy Young: Sandy Alcántara, Miami Marlins
The best pitcher in the league is also the most spectacular and the one who goes longer into games, so there’s just not a lot to say about why Alcántara is this season’s Cy Young so far. There are numbers that justify the previous sentences, of course, but they are not near as interesting as the videos of his slider wreaking havoc.
Alcántara has a 1.82 ERA in over 120 innings pitched this half season, he has pitched at least 7.0 innings per start since May 11th, he’s got the most complete games in the league, he’s 9-3, he has a sub 1.0 WHIP, he has over 100 strikeouts, he’s just 26 years old, he’s going to be an All-Star, and he’s gonna win his first Cy Young.