Well, that was fun.
Major League Baseball’s regular season officially is in the books, and the stage is set for an exciting month of playoff baseball. Before the postseason kicks off, though, now is the perfect time to look back at the best from the 2017 campaign.
From a historic rookie campaign in the Bronx to a power surge in Miami, we saw some pretty incredible displays of baseball over the last few months. So, who deserves to take home the hardware?
Here are our predictions for Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year in the American and National Leagues.
MVP
AL: Aaron Judge, OF, New York Yankees
This is one of the most fascinating MVP races in recent memory: The towering rookie slugger (Judge) versus the diminutive veteran hit machine (Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve).
Altuve’s consistency is downright absurd, and his .346 batting average was 15 points higher than baseball’s second-best hitter, Charlie Blackmon. But the MVP award is about impact, and no player had a bigger role in his team’s success than Judge.
The rookie outfielder led the AL in home runs (52), finished second in RBIs (114) and posted an MLB-best 8.2 Wins over Replacement despite enduring a brutal slump after the All-Star break. Most importantly, he finished strong, bashing 15 homers in the month of September to lift the upstart Yankees to a playoff berth.
NL: Giancarlo Stanton, OF, Miami Marlins
The NL race is much more wide open, as Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Anthony Rendon and Blackmon all have legitimate cases.
At the end of the day, though, we’re going with baseball’s new home run king, whose 59 home runs were the most by any player in a season since Barry Bonds hit a record 73(*) dingers in 2001. Oh, and Stanton’s MLB-best 132 RBIs don’t hurt, either.
CY YOUNG
AL: Corey Kluber, Cleveland Indians
This award was Chris Sale’s to lose about two months ago, but the Boston Red Sox ace endured some major hiccups down the stretch.
Kluber, meanwhile, continued his robot-like consistency, posting a scintillating 0.84 ERA over the final month of the season to finish as baseball’s leader in ERA (2.25) and WHIP (0.87). There’s nobody else in the running, so Kluber should have this sewn up.
NL: Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals
Yes, Clayton Kershaw has a lower ERA, but the Los Angeles Dodgers ace missed some time due to injury, while Scherzer has been an absolute workhorse for the second straight season.
The slightly unhinged Nationals right-hander had the lowest batting average against (.178) in baseball and finished second behind Sale with 268 strikeouts while tossing 200-plus innings for the fifth consecutive year. Scherzer deserves back-to-back Cy Young awards, and he should get it.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
AL: Aaron Judge, OF, Yankees
Andrew Benintendi deserves honorable mention for hitting the 90-RBI plateau, but come on: We know who’s winning this award.
NL: Cody Bellinger, 1B/OF, Los Angeles Dodgers
This one’s an easy call, too. Shout-out to Rhys Hoskins for clobbering 18 homers in 50 games, but Bellinger’s 39 homers, 97 RBIs and .933 OPS will keep the Rookie of the Year award in Tinseltown.
MANAGER OF THE YEAR
AL: Paul Molitor, Minnesota Twins
No team lost more games (103) than the Twins in 2016. A year later, they’re taking on the Yankees for a chance to play in the American League Division series. With all due respect to A.J. Hinch and Terry Francona, who led the Houston Astros and Cleveland Indians to dominant campaigns, respectively, Molitor easily did the most with the least talent.
NL: Torey Lovullo, Arizona Diamondbacks
There are some good candidates here, as Bud Black (Colorado Rockies) and Craig Counsell (Milwaukee Brewers) led surprising turnarounds. But neither manager can say they literally turned their team’s record on its head: Lovullo took the Diamondbacks from 69-93 to 93-69 in his first season as Arizona’s skipper. That’s good enough for us.
Thumbnail photo via Thomas B. Shea/USA TODAY Sports Images
